


Breathe In The Dark

by TamiaMMB



Category: Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (TV 2018)
Genre: F/F, Kinkle Siblings, LGBTQ Themes, Witches
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-30
Updated: 2021-02-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:21:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 13
Words: 45,573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25609552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TamiaMMB/pseuds/TamiaMMB
Summary: ➾ we're all searching for someone whose demons play well with our ownChilling Adventures of Sabrina | SEASON 1 | Part 1 & 2Prudence Blackwood x OFC
Relationships: Prudence Night/Original Character(s), Prudence Night/Original Female Character
Comments: 1
Kudos: 37





	1. Chapter ONE

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Hey guys! Hope you are enjoying this book as much as I loved writing it (even though it gives major headaches ugh..)  
> Don’t be shy, give me your opinions, or thoughts, or ideas, or anything really, I’d love to hear them!

(Not Edited) 

"I was confused by the zombies. I mean why were they so friggin' slow?"

"Fast-moving zombies are a relatively new concept in horror movies. Earlier incarnations assumed that reanimated corpses were afflicted by rigor mortis and, as such, moved slowly."

A close group of six teenagers made their way down the stairs after having just finished watching a zombie movie. Among them was a short golden-haired girl who walked ahead of the other five as she explained.

Her friends each glanced at one another with a knowing look, when a chestnut-haired girl spoke from the back, "There she goes again. 'Sabrina Spellman: human encyclopedia for the bizarre.' "

The aforementioned girl, Sabrina, laughed at the joke as did the others.

"But for real, how does she know these things?" A boy, with the same chestnut colored hair as the female behind him, asked.

"No idea."

As they were making up crazy theories, Sabrina spotted a group of high school jocks ahead of her and turns to catch the frantic look of fear in the green eyes of her petite best friend. She grabbed her hand and squeezed gently as a form of reassurance that she wouldn't let her do anything with her around. And she was thankful. 

The girls kept on walking towards the exit and joined into the conversation. Sabrina turned around and accidentally bumped into a middle-aged lady. 

They face each other ready with their apologies before recognizing one another.

"Oh, excuse me. Sabrina."

"Ms Wardwell. Hi." She chuckled, "I didn't know you were a fan of horror movies." 

"Sabrina's nuts for 'em. The gorier the better," The chestnut haired guy chuckled.

"Well, um, who doesn't enjoy a good scare every now and again? Especially this time of year." Ms. Wardwell was tall and had on a thin frame of round glasses that sat comfortably on her nose, long dark hair tied back in a secured ponytail. 

She was right, too. Greendale's only picture house was considerably packed that night. It being a couple of days before Halloween, most were out looking for a little thrill found in vintage horrors.

Sabrina, ray of sunshine that she was, had the brilliant idea of inviting her favorite teacher to their apres-movie late-night debates.

"Ms. Wardwell, we have a tradition of going to the movies and then to Dr Cerberus' to dissect whatever we just saw. Would you like to join us? "

Everyone beside the long haired brunette girl, who didn't really mind the suggestion, stared at Sabrina confused.

"I have papers to grade. But thank you for the offer. Really. See you in class, guys." The adult waved at them as she turned to leave.

The six wave back politely, but when she was a safe distance away, a dark skin person in their little group leaned forward while holding a smile on her face asked, "'Brina why would you do that?"

"Invite Ms Wardwell?"

"Yeah. I mean I get she's the only teacher with a kindhearted soul at our shit school but..."

Sabrina sighed, "I feel bad for her, living in that house... all alone."

* 

"The whole thing functions as a metaphor, Harvey!"

"It's a monster movie, Susie," Harvey argued skeptically.

"Devil's advocate, can't it be both?"

Pleased by the support she was receiving, the green eyed girl, Susie, exclaimed in triumph, "Exactly, exactly it's both!"

The group were sat a booth at Dr Cerberus', the local library/diner. Harvey, the chestnut haired boy, had his arm comfortably slung around Sabrina's shoulders. The two were sat opposite a hyped Susie and their dark skin friend, Roz.

"Yes," Roz agreed, sipping her strawberry shake.

"On one level, yes, it's about the zombies but it's also about the cold war." Susie continued enthusiastically.

"Civil rights," Roz added.

"The collapse of the nuclear family."

Harvey squinted, "Did we just watch different movies?"

"You didn't get that?" Susie persisted. "I gotta side with Roz and Susie on this," a boy sat to her left, at the edge of the booth, interjected.

He rolled up the sleeves of his leather jacket and rested his elbows on the table as he leaned forward, "I mean it was clearly shown from when the daughter turned into a zombie and then ate her mother?"

"Yes! Thank you, Elijah! Finally, someone who sees." Susie throws her arms in the air dramatically and sags in her seat, making the chestnut haired girl to Elijah's left chuckle.

"I think Harvey may have had his eyes closed during that part," Sabrina teased.

He shock his head vigorously, "No. No, I didn't."

"Aww was little baby Harvey scared?" The brunette mocked.

"No, I wasn't," Harvey answered the girl who shared the same resemblance as him.

"Uh huh, of course buddy," Elijah nodded, though his face showed he didn't believe a word.

"Oh, that's terrible you missed the best part then," Susie said.

Harvey turned Sabrina, "See what you did?" he lightly chastised his girlfriend, as he saw his friends turn on him.

"I'm sorry," Sabrina mumbled leaning in to kiss him.

"Ew, gross, uh-uh." The girl sitting between Sabrina and Elijah set her vanilla milkshake on the table with a scrunched face, "I thought we'd come to an agreement, none of that is to happen in my presence. Only two-second pecks on the cheeks are allowed."

The couple sheepishly separated as the others laughed. Sabrina was slightly embarrassed and Harvey was annoyed, though a light blush was creeping up his neck.

"Urgh, Mora," Harvey whined.

"Don't you give me that. It isn't the most comfortable thing as your older sister-"

"By 7 seven minutes."

"-to witness such. No matter how sickeningly adorable you two may be together, cut it out will ya."

* * *

At the same moment, across town, the windshield wipers of an old car were hard at work, trying to clear the rain off its surface, as it sped down the road. Barely any light was emitting into the evening, though Mary Wardwell took little thought of it as she mumbled along to the music coming from the radio.

I see a bad moon rising

I see trouble on the way

I see--

A figure appears out of the shadows and onto the road. Startled, she swerved her car to the side. In an attempt to not hit the thing she lost control of the vehicle before she brought it to a halt.

"Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, God." She panted, as she shakily exits her car. She looked around trying to find whatever it was she almost collided with but found nothing.

Confused and kind of freaked out, she turn back to her car wanting to get the hell out of there but the dark silhouette appeared.

"Oh, my god," she gasped.

"Help."

* 

"You poor creature. My cottage is just down the road. We'll get you all cleaned up then call Dr Saperstein in the morning," Mary said looking at the girl sat in her backseat through her rearview mirror. Her clothes were ripped and dirty, her dark matted hair covered up most of her face. She was young and pretty by the looks of it.

She didn't say a word. Probably scared out of he mind, Mary clicks her tongue with a shake of her head.

Once they arrived at her place, Mary ushered the girl to the bathroom. "Here we are. You can use the shampoo and body wash. There's a spare toothbrush under the sink. I'll prepare some fresh, warm clothes for you. They'll be in my room, which the first door to the left, once you're finished. So, you just get freshened up and once you're good as new, we'll talk. Alright?"

She was silent still and only gave her a nod, but that was enough for Mary.

* 

Wardwell was placing a tea set onto the table in front of the fireplace when the mysterious girl came into the living room in a just a robe, her long hair semi-dried and hanging off her shoulder.

She walked around the room, eyes wondering around the decor when the older woman finally noticed her.

"Oh, you startled me. You're a quiet little thing." She gives her a small nervous smile. "I see you're done. I brewed some tea. I found some yummy almond cookies in the cupboard," she offered kindly.

"Won't you tell me your name? Or what happened? Did someone attack you?" she inquired, concerned about the feeble girl.

"No," the girl finally said softly. She walked forward and took a seat with poise. "The woods did."

"Oh, well. You're not from around here, are you?" Mary took a seat, too, "Everyone knows about the witch hunt in Salem, but there was one right here in Greendale... 1692. Thirteen witches were hung in the forest. And their angry spirits have haunted the woods ever since."

"How do you know so much? About witches?"

"Well. I'm Greendale's unofficial town historian, I suppose. Plus I teach at the local high school, Baxter High."

"Is one of your students named... Sabrina?"

"Why, yes. Sabrina Spellman. Do you know Sabrina?" She asked. She thought maybe they were friends. If so, she could call the Spellman Mortuary and inform them of their lost girl.

"No," the girl's voice now distorted and raspy brought her out of her thoughts.

Wardwell gasped in shock and abruptly stood from her seat, frightened.

"But I knew her bastard-of-a-father who broke sacred witch law when he married a mortal sow."

Terrified, Mary tried to flee towards the front door but didn't make it. The young raven-haired girl had flung an outstretched arm to a pair of knitting scissors behind her over to the elder woman, plugging it into her neck killing her in seconds.

The girl leisurely bent over the fresh cadaver and started to recite unfamiliar words whilst tracing symbols in the pool of blood that flowed by her feet.

"Dominos patar respic ead neae e creo fatchim."

Now, there she stood. Transformed into an exact replica of the woman she just murdered.

"The great work begins, Dark Lord. I shall deliver Sabrina unto you."


	2. Chapter TWO

(Not Edited) 

"Hey, what's up? Everything okay?"

"Some jerks were picking on Susie, being cruel, Harvey. Calling her a freak, pawing at her," Sabrina, who angrily stomped her way to him, explained in a rush.

"Assholes. Who were they?" The boy asked.

"Susie won't tell me their names but can you ask around? I'll do the same."

"Of course, but 'Brina, these guys, they'll close rank. Especially to someone not on their bullshit team."

"He's right, I already tried," the two teens turned to find Mora walking up behind Harvey. By the expression on her face, she was about this close to knocking someone's lights out. "So, I'm guessing you know what happened to Susie."

"Yeah, she told me what happened when I found her in the girl's locker room crying," Sabrina told her, "How did you know?"

"Elijah and I found her, too, a while after it happened. We were too late," she mumbled, pissed she couldn't help her friend, "I came looking for you because you, blondie, are just like me. You won't stop at anything to help her." Sabrina smiled.

Mora crossed her arms, "So, what's the plan?"

"I don't know yet but we have to do something, you guys, this can't keep happening."

"I'm with you, all the way, I'm just saying—" Harvey cautioned.

"That there's no way to protect Susie? Is that what everyone's telling me?"

"Not at all."

The three turned their head to look at who was the fourth party to join them. It took them a second to digest the new look their usually docile sweet high school teacher had on her.

Unlike her usually straight hair-do that was forever tied up, the wide curls she had done seemed to give he locks volume as she left them to cascade down her back. Her lips were painted in a blood red color. She was dressed in a tight black dress that reached just below her knees. She was oozing confidence.

Harvey's mouth was hung open, Mora's eyebrows were shot up high and Sabrina had the most perplexed look.

"Perhaps I could be of assistance, Sabrina?"

"Ms Wardwell?" Mora questioned.

Mary faltered for a split second when her gaze fell unto the young girl who was hidden next to Harvey's slightly taller figure. She was stunned silent for a moment thought the teens did not notices since they were still trying to adjust to her new appearance.

Nasya? She thought to herself. No, it's not her.

Pulling herself together, "Yes?" she said, but no one said a thing. "How about we talk in my office, huh? Miss. Kinkle, do join us."

*

"My heart weeps for your friend," Wardwell spoke in a low quiet voice, "Such a difficult thing to be going through."

"Yes, it's this, uh... this town, this school, there's a culture of—"

"Puritanical masculinity?" Wardwell interjects, "And Principle Hawthorne is the most intolerant, the most buffoonish, the most misogynist of all."

She walked around them, slowly making her way towards her seat simply to lean on it, "When will the world learn? Women should be in charge of everything."

"Amen," Mora praised, evoking an amused look from the elder lady.

"Our assistant principal, Ms Glover, well she wouldn't turn a blind eye to what's happening."

"Yeah but she's only a locum. As Principal, Hawthorne is the one who delegates what's sanctioned or not. We'd have to reason with him first, which would be next to impossible considering what an ass he is." Mora looked to Ms Wardwell, nose scrunched, "Sorry."

Wardwell tapped her finger against her seat, "A fish rots from the head down." She walked to her office window and fiddled with the dolls she's collected over the years. Those things never failed to creep Mora out. "Now Principle Hawthorne isn't an ally. If... he were to take a sabbatical, say, I suspect you and your friends would come up with some way to help Susie."

"The problem is Hawthorne doesn't take sabbaticals or days off, even." Sabrina voiced. She sighed, "I just wish Hawthorne would just—" Sabrina stopped.

"Just what?"

"Hawthorne's a bully. And I wish someone would teach him a lesson."

"Why not you two?"

The long-haired brunette scoffed, "If only. We can't do anything, really." But Sabrina's interest was peaked, "But how would that help Susie?"

Mora thought, "If we could somehow relay what was happening to Ms Glover and got a stamp of approval on a project we could pitch, that would not only help Susie, and all the girls at this school, then maybe... maybe some action could finally be taken. But we'd have to pray for a miracle for Hawthorne to be ill for a day or two."

"Exactly," Mary commended. She knew she had Sabrina but she needed something to nudge her over the edge, just a bit. "He's scared of spiders, you know?"

"Principle Hawthorne is?" Sabrina echoed.

"Hmm," Mary laughed, it was soft but almost maniacal, "Absolutely terrified of them."

* * *

"Mora that's a brilliant idea!" Sabrina exclaimed excitedly as the two made their way to Harvey and Roz for lunch.

"What? What's going on?" Roz asked, pushing her thick-rimmed glasses.

"We just left Ms Wardwell's office after having a thought-provoking conversation. Sabrina, if you will."

"The football players are a symptom, but the disease goes much deeper into the bedrock of this school. So that's where we fight it, with a club."

"For young women to meet and bolster each other. Where we can discuss issues and problems we're facing and come up with proactive solutions." Mora finished.

"You mean, like, a club to topple the white patriarchy?" Roz was fully invested now.

"Wait, what?" Harvey asked, "Exactly." "Keep up, dude." His sister hit him lightly on the back of his head.

"To mobilize and protest if we need to get political, to fight when we need to fight-"

"To defend each other. So, Susie never feels alone, so none of us do." The blonde spoke, enthusiastically.

"But, won't Hawthorne block this?" Roz realized, "I mean, he wouldn't let me start a Daughter's of the Black Panther club last year."

"I may have a plan for getting us through without the interference of Hawthorne."

Mora snorts, as she took a sip of her orange juice, "What are you gonna plant spiders in his shoes?"

"Spiders?" Rosalind questioned.

"Apparently he has a fear of them," she shrugged. "Good to know," Elijah hummed, as he came up from behind them out of nowhere and sat down next to his best friend. She chuckled knowing he'll put that information to good use in the very near future.

"So, I mostly heard the gist of this club you three are organizing that could help our littlest pup. Even though it seems like a 'no boys allowed' thing, say no more. I still support." He approved while taking his lunch from out of his paper bag. "But if that doesn't seem to work, I'll be on standby to give those shits a good ass-whooping," They laughed.

"Now, I just need to do it fast." "How fast?" Harvey asked.

"As soon as possible. But, definitely by Friday."

"Just in time for your birthday," Roz smiled, nodding.

"Yes, but remember, we're not making a big deal out of that this year."

"But it is a big deal. It's your sweet sixteen, on Halloween."

"There is an eclipse," Roz points to Mora, agreeing vehemently with the girl, "I mean, that kind of cosmic alignment demands a party. Harvey, back me up."

"I mean I've tried, Mo, multiple times, but—"

"But, I have plans with my aunts. Years-in-the-making plans. It's a super-secret Spellman tradition that I'm not supposed to talk about so let's just focus on our club."

"Fine. We're still gonna try, again. Just so you know," Mora told her. "Okay, so what should we call it?"

"The She-Hawks," Roz suggested.

"God, no." "That's pretty bad." "Next."

She feigned hurt, "Ouch, you guys." They all burst out laughing when she reached to the one nearest her, which unfortunately for him was Harvey, and she hit him on the arm.

Sabrina just smiled sadly at her friends as they continued brainstorming ideas. She was gonna miss them.

* * *

The day after Sabrina and Mora came up with their club idea, Principle Hawthorne had coincidentally called in sick, which meant that Ms Glover was to be in charge of any and all application reviews.

Not even an hour later, Roz and Sabrina had left her office squealing in glee. Their club had been approved and they were beyond ecstatic. They were now the founding member of the Woman's Intersectional Cultural and Creative Association: WICCA. Rosalind picked the name.

Everything was going great after they got their club up and running: Harvey and Sabrina were happy, Mora just aced her physics and geography tests, Susie hasn't been harassed for consecutive days and everything was fine.

Well, with the exception of Sabrina's Dark Baptism taking place.

It was October 31st, and Sabrina had decided to be defiant one last time for the sake of her friends.

Her boyfriend had picked her up to take her to a Halloween party and to also celebrate her 16th birthday. Her friends were overjoyed when she arrived, finally able to persuade her to come to celebrate one of the most important events in her life. Though, they had no real idea of how important it was to the teenage witch. It was practically life-changing.

Yes, witch. The Spellman girl had been keeping this part of her life secret from them ever since they'd met. None of them knew about the other half of her life and the decision she was about to face.

After they sang her 'Happy Birthday', Sabrina could only watch with a sad smile as they danced and drank and laughed, not even knowing that this could very well be the last time they ever saw her.

She decided to put those thoughts at the back of her mind for the next few hours. She wanted to relax and try to enjoy the moments she had left with her friends. And she had. Sabrina had almost forgotten about where she should really be.

While everyone was outside watching the eclipse in fascination, Sabrina watched in horror. "Oh, no. The Blood moon." She rambled onto Harvey about how she was late and that she had a great time but she had to go, then shot straight for the woods.

"What was that about? Should we go after her?" Mora, who was dressed as a Minion, asked her twin worriedly. "I mean, it's late she shouldn't be out on her own." She had come to talk to him but arrived just in time to see the little freakout his girlfriend had displayed.

"We'd only slow her down. I'm guessing she was running late for that thing she has to attend with her family. Don't worry she knows those woods like the back of her hand. She'll be fine." Harvey mumbled.

Though reluctant, the brown-eyed girl nodded, "Come on. Elijah and Susie are by the porch."

"Yeah," He mumbled sadly as he walked to his friends. Mora looked at her brother's retreating figure worried. She hopes Sabrina didn't break up with him or something. She knew that it would crush him. She knew how much he loved her, heck everyone knew.

When she arrived at where the others were sat, she found them chatting about the cosmic event transpiring.

"You know," Susie began, "I read something, somewhere about the total eclipse." She started, gaining her friends' attention.

"So, you know how a total eclipse is basically what we see when the earth's shadow completely blocks the moon. Many times like tonight, the moon appears in a blood-like color. But there's this legend about how it actually first came to be.

"Thousands of years ago, practically during the first civilization, there was this young girl who was said to be the first-ever witch in history that was killed after she slaughtered half a dozen villages. It said there was so much blood spilt that the moon had soaked it in," A small crowd was now gathered around them, listening in.

"Why'd she kill all those people?" Elijah inquired, curious about the story.

"Jealousy," Susie simply said, "She'd thought that her husband was seeing another woman behind her back. Some childhood friend of his or something and she went completely berserk. She started with the other woman, then killed her husband and as she was still filled with fury, she massacred the neighboring villages."

"Shit," Some blonde girl in a pirate costume breathed.

"Anyway after the unforgivable act they burned her at the stake for her crimes and for witchcraft and as her flesh singed off, she swore to them would come back and kill everyone they've ever know and loved. Apparently, it all happened right here in Greendale."

Naturally, Mora thought.

"And so, every 66 years, all creatures of the night: wolves, crows, golems, demons, monsters and most importantly, witches would honor her. Witches from all around the globe would gather their covens and pay homage to her in several ways. Sacrifices, spell casting, performing dances around bonfires, orgies." The immature few chuckled at that.

"And every 66 years, as a way to show appreciation of their gifts and praise, more power would be bestowed upon those covens. They called her 'נְקָמָה מְבַשֵׂר' (m'vasér nekama) the 'Harbinger of Vengeance'."

It was silent amongst them for so long. Some of the teens were clearly spooked and the alcohol in their system didn't help. The only thing they could hear was the low vibrations of the speakers from inside the house.

A guy next to pirate girl started laughing, though you could hear it was slightly forced, "That was a great one. You gonna give us another? How about the boogieman?" He laughed some more. "Its obviously made up anyway."

Susie just shrugged, not saying another word, which made the guys even more uneasy.

"Who cares if it was real or not, I'm not gonna be able to sleep tonight," A girl sitting behind Elijah spoke.

"This place has way too many curses for it to be still standing," Elijah sighed taking a sip of his beer.

Mora hadn't said anything while Susie told the story. She had been weirdly invested in it as if it were a true historical event and she wanted to know the details. But she felt like something was off with the details.

Once her friend had finished and the other's each talked about their opinions and the tale, she looked up to the moon and it felt like she was in a daze. She couldn't look away if she wanted to. It was as if it was calling to her. She felt this tingling sensation run deep from within. Then a plenary sensation filled her, right to the bone as if something was missing inside of her and it just now found its way back.

Suddenly, she faintly heard a ringing sound encasing her and it got louder and louder by the second. Without knowing what she was doing, she brought a hand to the back of her neck where she felt a slight ache and hissed softly.

She took in a deep breath, eyes still glued onto the moon. "Mo, you okay?" Her curly-haired friend called out from beside her. She tore her eyes away from the sky and looked at the girl.

"Hmm?" "I asked if you were good?" Roz asked again, more attentive as she handed her a drink.

"Yeah... yeah, yeah. I am, thanks." She took the beverage in her hands. Roz nodded slowly before she began a new conversation. For a while, she had been paying attention before something caught her eye from over Roz's shoulder. Right on the edged of the forest but still hidden from the light, she saw a figure of a girl.

She couldn't clearly see her face since she was too far from her but she had long hair brown that about reached her hips, she wore a brown and beige top and skirt that seemed rather old.

She felt chills going up to her spine and shivered. The girl just stood there, unmoving. It seemed as if she was staring straight at her, too. Who is that?

"Morasha!" A hand on her shoulder was what brought her back to reality, again. "You sure you're okay? You look a little pale. Your drink isn't spiked, is it? Should I tell Elijah or Harvey to take you home?"

"Uh, no..." she glanced back at the girl only to find she vanished, "No, I'm fine, Roz. Really, I am. I think just need to go inside, I'm feeling a little cold."

"Yeah, of course, let's go."

Then got up and headed for the entrance but before walked in she gave one final look at the moon before turning around.


	3. Chapter THREE

(Not Edited)

It's safe to say that it's been an interesting-- okay, a strange couple of weeks in Greendale. Here's why.

*

In the mortal world, Rosalind Walker's book choice for her English assignment had been denied by her teacher without any explanation or reason. So, in a typical Roz fashion, she went on a long passionate rant about her situation to her friends the next period. Susie stepped in to ask her how WICCA could help.

"I mean that's why our club exists, right?" Was he reasoning, "We'll take the fight to Hawthorne."

And so they did. They went to see Principle Hawthornes about the issue but he wasn't much help. Shocker.

All he had told them was that the book and certain others 'contained some graphic passages and public schools are where they need to keep certain topics from impressionable minds'. Not at all satisfied and even more pissed off, Roz stormed the library in search of the other books only to learn that the library had gone through a cleansing a while back.

The principle had come back to the girl, after the countless demands for those books to be restored, to tell her that the PTA would hold a downhill meeting where they could present their case to the school board then would later be reviewed in three months. "There," he thought out loud, "That should hopefully keep them quiet for a while."

And they were happy. It was better than Hawthorne just brushing them over as he usually does. It was a considered win for everyone. Except for Roz.

Because in three months, maybe even before that, she would be blind. She was facing myopic atrophy. Her retinas were becoming more damaged and her vision was degrading faster than her optometrist thought. He deduced that her eyesight would be gone come January. That was why she fought as hard as she did to get those books back.

While Susie had tried to console their friend, Mora was already trying to devising a plan, when she finally thought of one.

A few days later, WICCA members threw Roz a surprise assembly. She learnt that Mora, the super hacker she was, got into the Mayor's administration servers which she expressed was so easy it made her cry. She had forged a document approving the immediate reinstallation of all the books that were removed during the ban years ago at the high school and went a little further by classing it in their most urgent to-do list, to you know, 'speed up' the process.

God, if her older brother knew she hacked into a government network again she would be in deep shit. So it was to be kept in the need to know cabinet, just between them girls.

Roz had been so grateful she had no words to express her joy.

*

At the Kinkle residence, things were a little tense between the family members. Harvey's father was adamant that Harvey works in the mines, their family business. He wasn't gentle about it either. But that wasn't where his heart was at. It was in his artwork.

Harvey would spend hours creating amazing and beautifully strange pieces. And once he was finally satisfied with those, he'd get a clean sheet of paper and start a new one. Tommy, Harvey and Mora's older brother, said he got it from their mother. He said was as talented as she was beautiful.

She had died when they were only babies so they didn't have any memories of her. Only a few pictures their father stored in the attic because it was too painful seeing her smile from a frame, and the stories that Tommy would recount to them before they went bed. From the way he would talk about her, the twins wished they could have met. Harvey was honored to at least have this particular 'gift' shared with her. He felt more connected to her in some way when he drew.

When Dr. Cerberus had offered him to work weekend shifts with him, he was so excited. His dad, however, hadn't been too thrilled when he found out and decided it was high time he started getting shifts down by mines.

He had tried. He honestly did, but the fear was too strong. See, when he was a kid he and Mora had gone with their father on one of his shifts. They had stupidly decided to play hide and seek in the mines and Harvey had gotten lost. A panicked young Mora ran to get Tommy's help since she couldn't find her twin anywhere.

When they finally did find him hours later, the poor kid looked scared out of his mind sitting in a corner. They chalked it up to the fear of being all alone for too long in the dark but that wasn't entirely it.

He had seen something. Something so... terrifying, that his whole body had froze up. His entire frame was trembling. He couldn't move. As if his legs were nailed to the ground. His eyes widened, breaths ragged and harsh, fat tears trailing down the young boy's face. 

He had a monstrous beast thing that was lurking in the mineshaft. He could only describe it as some type of goat man. Unbeknownst, he had just seen the Dark Lord Himself.

He hadn't even told Mora about the time he was missing. So, call him a coward or whatever but he couldn't for the life of him set one foot inside. He couldn't.

His brother knew this would happen and sent him home. You could only imagine how angry his father had been when he got home. The oldest Kinkle had been so furious when he confronted him. The next moments were a blur to all of theme. He went to take a swing at Harvey but didn't see Mora move in front of her brother and took the hit instead. He froze once he realized what he'd done and was even more surprised when Tommy laid one on him, too.

Tommy had never been a violent person, he was usually the voice of reason between his father and his siblings. But once his eyes caught the bleeding cut near his baby sister's left eye, that was where he lost it.

"If it's such a big deal to you I'll get more guys. Push comes to shove I'll take his shifts but Harvey is done, Dad. I'm not gonna let him or Mora waste their lives as you did after mom—," he stopped and took a deep breath, "Now, if you lay so much as a finger on them so help me God you will regret it," He threatened.

He promised his mom he would take care of them and protect them. He wanted to them to have a good life.

To have amazing grades that would get them accepted into amazing colleges— art for Harvey and some computer tech school for Mora and given how smart she was, he was sure they'd even offer her a scholarship— graduate then get the hell out of this town. He didn't want them to miss their chance as he had.

*

Not long after Susie revealed to Roz a secret she was forced to keep about what was going on in her household.

Her uncle Jesse had been ill for some time now after he had gone into one of the mineshafts. He claimed to have seen something but no one knew what because his speech became muddled before he could elaborate. So ever since he had been bedridden, left in one of the upstairs rooms.

Now Roz being Roz, she told Harvey who then told Elijah. The four, still trying to figure out if it were a good or downright ridiculous plan, decided to visit Jesse to get some answers. Harvey hadn't ever met another who possibly saw what he did. He needed... who knows, some reassurance that he hadn't made up such things that day.

Or maybe he wanted to know that what uncle Jesse had had nothing to do with what he saw and it was just a figment how his twisted imagination. That all Jesse had was, unfortunately, a psychological illness so he could put all this behind him.

But then, wouldn't that mean he was crazy, too?

In the end, all the man did was scare the kids shitless. They did get answers (sort of) but they were not about to go back and ask for details. So they tried to move past it but they were still freaked out.

While they were on their adventure, Mora had a few things on her mind. Aside from her family drama, Ms Wardwell has been acting— how can she put it... odd, towards her.

Before third period, the teacher had approached her when she was retrieving her books, "Ah, Miss Kinkle, just the person I wanted to see. I- What happened to your eye?"

She was kinda surprised Ms Wardwell noticed. She thought she'd covered the bruise pretty well since no-one has asked about it, not even teachers. They hadn't even taken a second glance. Harvey was the only one she had worried about because he had been on edge about it.

No matter, "Oh, this. Had a little accident at home. Harvey can be a bit of klutz. But I'm alright, really." She lied smoothly. She was a master at it.

But it looked like Ms Wardwell wasn't buying it, which again, slightly surprised the girl. But she tried to move her attention, "You said you were looking for me?"

Mary knew what she was doing and decide to humor her. "Yes. Why don't we talk in my office."

Once seated, Mary began, "I don't know if you know this but us teachers have a duty to check in once in a while with the students. Just to make sure everything is going fine in their day to day lives, and should they need someone to talk to. And as one of my most cherished pupil, I'm most interested in you." She said, "So, tell me honestly. How are you, Morasha?"

Mora cringed. Aside from the fact that she didn't like it when people used her full name, this was a bit weird in her opinion. Not that she didn't like Ms Wardwell or anything. She was super kind. It was just that Sabrina was more the one to have friendly relationships with faculty staff or Roz. The gang knew that Ms Wardwell had favored the blonde teen, though she hadn't vocally said it, especially recently. And they were totally fine with it, so long as it didn't get creepy.

She shrugged and answered slowly, "I'm alright."

Mary hummed. She tried again, "Your family, how are they? Your parents? Your brothers?"

"Uh, Harvey's good. So is my older brother. Dad's... good too," she shrugged, again.

"What about your mother?"

Mora faintly squints, "She's dead. It's just my dad." Wardwell tsked, "Oh, poor dear. When was this exactly?"

"Sixteen years ago, about two months after Harvey and I were born."

Mary lifted her brows as if remembering, "Right. Twins. When is your birthday actually?"

She frowns, "Shouldn't you already know this stuff?"

"Yes, but forgive me. I have so many students and its hard to keep track of all their details."

"Right. It's on September 28th." Oh, dear Satan.

"Last month. And did anything special occur?"

"No, nothing special. Had some cake, I think we went to the movies. A pretty normal day."

It wasn't on her birthday but she thought of what happened that night of the Halloween party but decided not to mention that. And why would she? Come to think of it. Nothing happened. She was just a buzzed and it was a bit chilly out.

"Ms Wardwell, I'm sorry but I'm a bit confused about what's going on."

"I'm just trying to make conversation but you're right, it's off-topic." She tried again, "Let's talk about your future. I know it's a bit soon but I'd like to know your plans, where are you thinking of applying?"

The teen sat back a bit more, "I'm not too sure, yet. I'm thinking of MIT or UC Berkeley. I know its a bit ambitious and its quite the change from little ol' Greendale but I think that's honestly what I want. A change." She told her.

"Why is that? Are you not happy here at Baxter High?" Mary leaned forward onto her desk. "If so, I'm sure we can find a suitable high school nearby that could good for you."

"No, no, that's not it at all. I am happy here. Well, that's slightly overstating but I'm good here. Besides where else would I go? Riverdale? No, thanks. It's got its own shit to deal with first." She said. "My friends are here. My family, too. As long as they're here, I think I can stick it for a few more years."

"I understand. You really care for them."

" 'Course I do. They're my life." After a moment of silence, she picked up her bag that she had placed on the chair beside her. "Speaking of academics, I should really be getting to class. If that's all..." she stood up.

"Yes I think that's all for today," Mary mumbled absentmindedly. She had her hand on the door when Ms Wardwell stopped her, "Just so you know, Morasha, you can come to me anytime you need. If it's just to talk, to get something off your chest if you need help. Anything at all. My door is always open." She gave her this look that Mora couldn't put a name on.

Giving her a finale tight-lipped smile she left the office.

Like she said. Odd.

* * *

In the witch world, the Spellman family have been through quite the rollercoaster.

After her disaster of birthday, Sabrina had received an Infernal Summons which basically meant she was being sued by the Dark Lord for a breach of promise since she fled from her dark baptism. Her Aunt Zelda had been, to put it lightly, outraged that night.

Until the affair was settled, the entire Spellman family was stripped of their powers, to Zelda's dismay. Luckily for Sabrina, her thoughtful, knowledgeable, devious and devilishly handsome cousin Ambrose informed her of a mortal former-attorney who was versed in the witch world, Daniel Webster.

Mr. Webster was able to win Sabrina's case after he and her other Aunt Hilda teamed up and revealed that the latter had witnessed Sabrina's baptism in a Catholic church, by the wish of her late sister in law, a day before her late brother signed his daughter's soul off in the Book of the Beast when she was still a newborn, witnessed by Zelda, in exchange for his blessing to marry her mother.

That had been one major curveball thrown the plaintiff's way.

Ultimately, the Dark Lord had offered her a deal: that he'd allow her to retain her mortal life but she had to attend the Academy of unseen arts as well as a weekly black mass. Knowing she wouldn't get a better offer she accepted. Thus commencing her journey at the Academy of Unseen Arts.

*

During her first weekend at the academy, the blonde witch met Nicholas Scratch, a warlock who very much admired her father's works, and unsurprisingly the Weird Sister. The entire three days she was there, they planned on making her the target of that year's Harrowing. A crazy witch tradition, the more magical and sinister version of pranks.

In between the harrowing, she admitted her displeasure with her academic schedule. Even her Aunt Zelda, who hadn't been all too happy (but really when is she ever) from being called to the High Priest' office because of her niece, had agreed when she heard what courses she had been attending: sacred geometry, Latin and herbalism instead of demonology, conjuring and binding rituals, on the grounds that she was not being challenged.

To test her, Father Blackwood told Sabrina to solve what was called an Acheron Configuration, something her father created. If she were to solve it, he would adhere to her request of taking on more advanced classes.

But before she could focus on that task, she had to deal with the Weird Sisters.

After learning that Quentin, a boy who had been helping her around the academy and during her harrowing, and a few other kids were actually dead due to the direful witch tradition, she put her foot down.

She strongly believes if she didn't do something now then this sick tradition would torment or kill others after her. So, she does what the smart thing she can do and that was to call in for back up.

Her aunties came to the rescue also wanting to put an end to it after learning its gotten witches killed. Hilda specifically was more than willing to aid since she had been on the receiving end during her years at the academy, by her sister no less.

In the end, the sisters got theirs and the so-called half-breed made it known that Harrowing to be no more.

*

After the fiasco the school, Sabrina thought she could relax and finally pull her attention to the Configuration that Blackwood had assigned her with.

Using her father's journal that Nick managed to snag from the library, she was able to figure out how to open the device and unknowingly extricated a sleep demon named Batibat in the process.

Turns out, it hadn't been just any ordinary configuration, it was actually a prison Edward set up to entrap the thing. And so, the everyone in Spellman household was put under its sleeping curse, making them live out their worst fears and darkest nightmares.

Ms Wardwell was fundamentally the one who came to the rescue revealing she too was a witch. That she had known her father after she moved to Greendale and promised him she would watch over her. When in truth, she knew of their predicament because she set up a spell in order to spy on the family, mostly Sabrina. When, Ms Wardwell, now revealed to be Lilith, tried to get Sabrina to escape but she wouldn't leave her family suffers in the hands of thing she foolishly set free.

Sabrina went over to Ms Wardwell's to confront her because was quite frankly pissed. At the end of it she told her to stay away from her and her family.

She was lied to by yet another person she trusted. She's learned yet another one of her father's secrets. Her home had been violated. Her family had been spied on for Satan knows how long.

She was so angry she wanted to set something ablaze. But fortunately, Ambrose was able to calm her down.

"Might I suggest you give the woman the benefit of the doubt?" He had said when she retold him the discussions she had with the older woman.

Sabrina refused to though. She had been deceived one too many times and she was tired of it. She was gonna do things on her own.

* * *

Now when these mismatched worlds are intertwined, well...

*

Things were starting to get back to normal for Elijah, Harvey, Roz and Susie. That is until they all started having hallucinations about uncle Jesse at random moments, telling them awfully spiteful things.

At school, when Sabrina had finally arrived, they recounted the events to her and Mora, since Harvey couldn't keep lying to his sister. They also went off sharing their theories. How they thought he might be possessed by a demon.

At the mention of a demon, Sabrina's interest has peeked but she played it off though not as gently as Mora had.

"A demon, really? That's a bit—"

"Insane? Absurd? Unrealistic?"

"I was gonna say 'a bit of a reach'," Mora countered her friend. The four in front of them went through something super freaky, apparently. And knowing her brother's fear of those mines, remembering how traumatized he'd been for so long when they were younger, she didn't feel right calling them crazy. She wasn't there to witness any of it, so who was she to say anything opposing it.

But she did still think it was implausible, though.

"Come on, guys. I mean, is demonic possession even a thing?" Sabrina asked.

"There's something else." Roz interrupted nervously, "I know it sounds kinda crazy. But I think I saw Uncle Jesse at my house last night. A-and he was saying all these horrible things to me. And about me. And—"

"Me too," Elijah admitted.

"Me three," Susie confessed.

"Same."

"Okay, well that's bizarre," Mora stated. She would have reassured Roz that it might have just been mind playing tricks after her first disturbing encounter but if all four of them were seeing him on the same night, that was a little eerie.

They hadn't known this but it was because of when they tried to subdue him, they each made physical contact. Which is how demons are able to prey on their victims. But feeding off of their fears and shame.

Sabrina understood that they were stuck on their opinions, which weren't wrong but she couldn't tell them that no matter how guilty it made her feel.

"Well, whatever is wrong with your uncle Susie, promise me you won't ever go back."

She scoffed, "Trust me wild horses couldn't drag me back in there."

*

Looking for ways to help her friends, the teenage witch urged her aunties for help only to have her Aunt Zelda warn her not to meddle in mortal affairs. She went to Ambrose, who told her the demon played her by giving a fake name, after she astral projected into Uncle Jesse's room to assess him for herself. She then sought out to the academy, going as far as to bait Father Blackwood saying it could eventually bring unwanted attention to their witch community. But he only shot down concern unbothered, telling her that witches could not perform any exorcisms.

Determined to save her friends and Jesse, she went ahead anyway. Ignoring the warnings given by the High priest and her Aunt Zelda when she discovered her intentions.

With no other choice, she accepted Ms Wardwell's offer to help.

If it had been her choice, Mary would have just killed the winy teen and be done with it. But it wasn't her choice, It was the Dark Lord's. And he wouldn't exactly be pleased with that outcome. He had plans for the girl.

So, she put on her best apologetic facade and, though it killed her inside, begged the girl. The witch told her it was her way of making amends.

No longer able to stand by and watch while her niece and sister could possibly get killed, Zelda showed up to help the women and successfully expelled the demon and saved the human. It was a win for the Spellman women.

But the victory though was short-lived. The next day, the Putman's called the mortuary relaying that Jesse Putman had passed away during the night due to heart failure.

Sabrina felt like a defeated. She thought they'd saved him. He was supposed to be okay. She couldn't save him.

She did actually save him. That night, Mary had returned to Jesse's room and killed him. She'd confessed to the man that he was only a pawn in the Dark Lord's grand scheme.

"But it's such a pity, that you won't be around to see the prophecy fulfilled. I'm sure it'll be apocalyptic."


	4. Chapter FOUR

(Not Edited )

"It's Thanksgiving week, class, and I want to talk about you and this town. Your family trees tell the tale of Greendale. So, how well do you know your roots?"

Ms. Wardwell swiftly turned on her heels and made her way down the rows of her students' desks, arriving at her intended target. "For instance, you, Ms. Kinkle. Uh, you as well Mr Kinkle." She refrained from rolling her eyes forgetting about the young man sitting in front of Mora and tried to include him in the topic but her sights were fixated on the female brunette.

"When did your family come to Greendale?"

"I'm not exactly sure."

"How did they come to own the mines? And why?"

"I don't— I don't know."

"Well, you've got some digging to do." She caught herself again, "All of you do. The assignment this week is to research your own family history. It's time we got to know ourselves and each other... better."

From where she sat, Mora could practically hear Harvey gulp. To be honest, she was a bit uncomfortable too with the way Ms. Wardwell was scrutinizing them, mainly her.

"Class is dismissed." She announced when the bell rang.

* * *

As a thanksgiving tradition, the Kinkle family members (save the only female) gather to spend some quality time while Grandpa Kinkle pays a visit. They mostly spend their days drinking beer, talking sports, eating a delicious homemade dinner prepared by Mora (with the help of Tommy, though she only lets him cut the onions and such. Because, bless his soul, no matter how hard he tries, he can't cook for shit) and —most importantly— go hunting.

Once Harvey and Mora got home from school, they had found their brother, father and grandfather, Jefferey Kinkle, all sat in the living room.

The twins shared a look, knowing that the torturous week had begun. After greeting him and sending Harvey a look that meant 'good luck', Morasha left the men to their own devices and headed upstairs to her room. Jeff never allowed her to participate, not that it bothered her, because he said, "We wouldn't want to keep you away from housework, sweetheart." And then proceeded in demanding a beer from the fridge. Now that, that bothered her.

"Grandpa, I'm supposed to write a paper on our family history. Have we always been miners?"

"Not always. Back in the early days, when we were Von Kunkles, we hunted and trapped. And then there was that terrible winter. And those people."

"What people?"

"Well, no-one knew where they came from but they lived on the outskirts of town. And the townsfolk used to say that they were tunnelling in them hills. They claimed we stole their land."

"Did we? Steal land from them?"

"The hill people scared the town folk. And it was decided that someone should get rid of them, and that duty fell to us." "And after they were gone we made use of the land."

"So it wasn't a 'claim', our family chased them from their homes." Harvey was irate but hid it. It seemed it was much worse than that because he felt he was implying that they killed them, but he could be wrong. "What happened to the people? The hill people?"

"You're coming huntin' with us this year, ain't you?" Harvey hesitantly nodded his head. "I'll show you what happened."

* * *

At school, Ms Wardwell bumped into Mora in the hallways.

"Ms Kinkle, how are you today?"

"Oh, morning Ms Warwell," Mora answered the woman readjusting her bag, "Doing great, thanks."

"Good. How's your assignment coming along? Find anything enjoyable?" She questioned.

"Uh, unfortunately not much. I did find out that I come from a long line of hunters, though I can't really say I'm surprised. You wouldn't either if you've met my family." She shrugged. "Sorry, looks like you'll be correcting endless piles of dull reports."

"Oh, that is a bummer." She paused. "What about your mother's side?" "My mother?" "Well yes. I did say family tree and I'm pretty sure your mother didn't appear out of thin air." She chuckles.

"Huh. Don't know why I hadn't thought of that." Mora mumbled. It wasn't a half-bad idea but she doubts she'd find anything.

"Aunts or uncles, perhaps." She hints.

"No, my parents never had siblings." She shook her head.

"Oh, well. I'm confident you'll find something more gripping than a bunch of boring old hunters." Wardwell jokes with a smile. Knowing her job is done, she bids her farewell, "Well, I'm off. Can't wait to read what you've discovered."

Mora smiled but her mind was still contemplating her new objective. "Alright, plan B."

* 

Mora had spent hours looking for something good to write about her mom's side of the family but nothing caught her interest. The furthest she got was in the 1900s. They came from England before they settled in Greendale. From then on, they dabbled in farming, real estate and banking.

She was about to give when she saw a white and black photo album with intricate designs on the cover. She sat crossed legged, her back against the old dusty trunk as she flipped through it.

A smile found itself on her face as she scanned the images of her mom and dad. They looked so happy together. She wondered what would have been had she still been around. Maybe Dad wouldn't be so rigid and angry all the time. Maybe Tommy would have been able to leave for college with an unburdened heart. Not needing worrying much about his family. He could have found a job that would have loved and enjoy. Not this crap one he has now down at the mines. She swears she could see how it's sucking the life out his after every shift.

Maybe she and Harvey would have bonded over their love of art. He would geek out over the comic book world and rant to her for hours about his characters and his ideas. She would have given him a few pointers and ideas of her own, which would get Harvey even more pumped.

Maybe they would have been happy.

Maybe everything would have turned out better. She thought, turning to another page.

On the other side, she saw a picture that made her pause and frown. "Who are you?" She asked to no one in particular.

The old photo was one of a group of four people: her mother and father whom she recognized immediately. Her, with short ash blonde hair and deep grey eyes and him, with his brown unruly hair and chocolate brown eyes.

Beside them though, were two people she had never seen before: the man to her father's left had looked to be around the same age maybe just a few years younger had the same unruly hair as her father just a shade lighter, maybe just a few inches longer. He was sitting on a camp chair, his right arm resting on top of a guitar that was sat on his lap. An admirative smile on his face as his chocolate brown gaze was solely fixed on the young woman in front of him.

The girl was next to her mom as they both sat on the ground. She had really long dark brown hair that she wore half-updo. Her face was slim and dressed in an orange sundress. She couldn't see her eyes because it seemed that the picture had been taken as she was laughing at something her mom had been saying. She was so very pretty, she could now understand why the man couldn't take his eyes off of her.

She took the picture out of its clear socket and turned it over.

Me, Sophie, Eric and Natasha. September 1973. was written on the back.

Before she knew what she was doing, stood up and went downstairs to the kitchen, picture in hand. "Dad!" She called out.

Now normally she wouldn't even bother asking her father anything cause you never know with his moods, which were all generally poor but there was just something about the young pair that called to her.

"In here."

"Dad," she started suddenly nervous, "I, uhm. I was just curious but, uh, who's Eric?"

He was frozen stiff. To say he was caught off guard would be putting it mildly. "W-what?" He finally managed.

"Eric. And well, Natasha." He finally gazed down and saw the picture in her hand. Since he didn't know how to feel, he chose the only emotion he was accustomed to recently. Anger.

"Where the hell did you find that?" He bellowed in displeasure. "You been going through my stuff?"

"Mom's, actually. I was looking around for some information on her side of the family for a school project when I found an old photo album. I didn't recognize them and they were quite a number of pictures of them, so I figured you must have been close." She explained, not planning on being intimidated. "Who are they?" She asked setting the picture on the table.

He knew better than to think she would be deterred by him to stop with the questions but he knew her. She wouldn't stop. So he thought it best to just give what she wanted, or rather what she needed only.

"Eric—" He paused and controlled himself, "Eric was my brother."

Mora's eyes widened, "Woah. W-what? Brother? I-I-," She didn't know what to say. He and grandpa always said he was an only child.

"Uhm okay. And, Natasha? What about her? Was she your sister?"

He made sure to stop the lift of the side of his mouth from making an appearance at the thought of Natasha, and replied, "In-law. She got married to Eric a few years after that photo was taken."

Mora huffed, a smile coming through as she was starting to come to terms with the revelation. "Why've we never met them? Where are they? W-what do they do? What are they like?"

He hesitated, "They're dead." There was a pregnant pause. "I'm so sorry." She said tentatively, "How did it happen?"

His heart felt like it was being stabbed by a thousand knives seeing the few seconds of pure excitement shift to sorrow on her face. His expression slipped for a moment and he almost let it out. Almost.

But he stopped himself. He couldn't do it.

His look set back to its stone default and spoke, "That's enough. Now I don't wanna hear any more talk about them."

"Wait, but wh-"

"I said that's enough! Leave."

Why was she even surprised? But she guessed she could understand. It must have been a painful memory for him. She refrained from rolling her eyes as he took a deep breath and exited the kitchen.

Making sure she was gone, he let out a huge shaky breath he hadn't known he was holding.

The next day as Mora got ready for school her mind was still reeling. She was on the phone with Elijah all night recounting her family revelations to him and he too was surprised. And own her way to school she told Harvey, too. Naturally, his mind was blown as well. She then told him that she would do her research on her aunt-in-law's family if there was anything there. It was family, all the same, right?

So she spent all her morning free periods searching for anything and everything on the Cardoso family and was able to discover ordinary material but hey it was better than a story about some truculent hunters.

She was about to end her research when she came across more captivating anecdote. She couldn't wait to tell the others.

*

"Guys, this is Prudence." The group had halted their conversations as they looked to Sabrina and the unfamiliar face next to her. "She's my cousin who's visiting for Thanksgiving. Prudence, this is my boyfriend, Harvey. His sister and my friend, Mora. Her best friend, Elijah. And finally my two best friends, Rosalind and Susie." She introduced as mostly everyone waved and the others nodded offering a friendly smile.

"Very nice to meet you." The dark-skinned beauty greeted. She turned to Sabrina and softly whispered, "You promised me boys."

"I wanted you to meet my friends first." She whispered back then rapidly addressed the others, "So, what are we talking about?" She asked taking a seat next to Harvey, as Prudence took the seat facing the group.

"Uh... my ancestor Dorothea," Susie began first, a bit hesitant due to the new company but didn't let it bother her for long. "She was an early settler in Greendale, and was also a pirate who helped a group of women who were fleeing religious persecution in Scotland."

"Dorothea Putnam? We learned about her at my school." Prudence spoke, "She was a true ally to those women. A hero to the marrow."

Susie beamed, "So I'm discovering." She was so happy and felt pride that other schools have actually acknowledged her newly found heroine.

Sabrina was just glad Prudence was actually getting along with her friend. This might have turned out to be a good idea after all.

"Did you turn up anything, Harvey?" Roz asked.

"Yeah, but it's kinda messed up."

"That's putting it lightly," Mora mumbled and he agreed.

"Basically the Kinkles got ownership of the mines in a... a land grab. Kicked some people out who lived on the hills and took them over."

"What does that mean?"

"By 'kicked out', he means killed. And by 'took over' he means stole. What did you say your family name is?" She asked calmly but with a hint of malice in her tone.

"Harvey?"

"Kinkle."

"So you're a descendant of the Von Kunkles, then. Those 'hill people' your ancestors killed were witches. Which makes your family witch—"

"Come on, Prudence I mean everyone knows witches aren't real. M-mora what about you? I'm assuming you'll be writing the same thing as Harvey?" She nervously tried to deviate the attention off of Harvey. She had to simmer Prudence's anger. The poor kid wouldn't be able to survive one of her hexes.

Mora was about to tell the girl sat across her to calm down just a smidge before Sabrina but in, not understanding her sudden hatred towards her brother. Then she had gone on about witches? What the heck?

She cleared her throat, "Uh, no. While Harvey's gonna write an original paper on a bunch of trigger-happy white men, I will be doing writing a one about my aunt's side of the family."

Her three friends were confused for a moment before Roz verbalized their doubt, "Uhm, but-but you guys don't have an aunt."

Mora soon forgot about Prudence's weird attitude and got excited to share what she'd learned, "Actually we did. Apparently our dad wasn't an only child, he had a brother. And he then met and married our aunt."

"Past tense?" Roz asked softly.

"Yeah. They died. Don't know how." She said mournfully. "So, my aunt was technically apart of our family, I figured it still works. Ms Wardwell even gave me the go-ahead. Heck, she was the one who gave me the idea." She shrugged.

"After poking around for anything on the Cardoso family I found pretty mundane information until I came across an article published in 1892 about a young woman who had a sister. This sister had been apparently been missing for weeks during some grim winter here in Greendale. Unfortunately, long after the winter ended, they never found Freya. Ella was so deeply devastated by the loss of her sister that she killed herself a year after marrying Luis Cardoso and giving birth to her son—"

"W-wait." Prudence was flabbergasted, as was Sabrina if you couldn't tell by her jaw practically laid on her lap, "D-did you say her name was Freya?"

"Uh, yeah." She confirmed and she thought Prudence was about to say more but she was just too stunned. So she cried on, "Right, so I did a little more digging and went back even further. I found some pretty cool shit."

She readjusted herself on the seat, "Before she got married, her maiden name was Tarsa and there was a whole lot about them. Dating back to centuries B.C. I mean, they had been all over the place."

She got out the picture she had printed out and placed them one by one on the table in front of her, "Check this out. One had led the Peloponnesians into victory in the Peloponnesian War. Then another had been the head adviser to Cleopatra VIII. Another had actually been a royal from an island near the south-east of Africa. They called her 'Blodreina', The Red Queen."

Her friends, plus one, were all hanging at the edge of their seat, fully entranced. "Coincidentally, around the time Greendale was founded one of them had known a certain brave female pirate..." she trailed off.

"Dorothea!" Susie made a 'mind blown' hand gesture. "Yeah, apparently Mora's ancestor had also helped her smuggle those groups of women, but ask it to be kept a secret. We only know since I recognized the name in one of her journals."

"Isn't that insane?" She asked, "Though there was something that had been mentioned over and over linked to the Tarsa name, which even I thought it was a bunch of B.S."

"I thought it was badass and awesome." Mora rolled her eyes.

"What was said about them?" Sabrina questioned.

They were witches.

"They were witches," Elijah revealed.

Prudence knew it. The Tarsa lineage was at the top of the list of most respected witch bloodline. They were so very powerful, since pretty much the dawn of time. Unfortunately, no one knew what happened to them. They had just simply vanished off the face of the earth. Some say they fled and went into hiding forsaking the witch faith. Others say that the Dark Lord had aggrandized them. Summoned them to the pit to serve right in His presence. Their duty on earth having been fulfilled.

She had not imagined this day to turn out to be so informative. Here she sat, in a mortal school, in the presence of a descendant (be it only through marriage) of the very woman she was honouring in this year's Feast of Feasts as Queen, Praise Freya. And learned she had a connection to the most notorious family among the witch community.

Perhaps following the half-breed today had been a good idea after all.

The only down-side was that she could not explain to them how much of an honour it was to be related to such a powerful bloodline.

"Witches. Huh." Sabrina slowly nods, trying to wrap her head around all this new information. I mean she knew about Freya even if it was just only a couple of days ago.

"Yeah," Mora's face scrunched.

Prudence knew that judgmental look. She didn't know why but the fact that this abject mortal was the one to give it fuelled her with tremendous anger.

"What?" She tilted her head to the side, "Does that bother you?"

"Why would something like that bother me? I mean it's, like Sabrina said there's no such thing as witches. I just find it irritating that whenever someone feels threatened by another's success, especially a woman's, they immediately brand they as witches and people believe it. it's ridiculous. They're just fairytale villains, they aren't real." She shrugged.

Prudence scoffed, "'Villains'? Of course, you would think that."

Excuse you? "Can I know what your problem is?" Mora glared.

"Certainly. My problem is that people like you can't handle the reality of different people out there when faced with it and you can't accept other's having more power." She gritted her teeth in fury.

"You do realize we're talking about witches, right?" Mora gave a bewildered laugh.

"Let's just all settle down," Sabrina tried to mediate. But Prudence was so heated she ignored both of them, "I mean look where your family comes from," she gestures to Harvey, "they committed atrocities, and blood-atonement is demanded." She spat.

At this point, Susie, Elijah and Roz were confused and a bit terrified while Harvey said, "Wait, hang on!"

"This girl's insane," Mora shook her head.

"Kidding! She's kidding." Sabrina snatched her bag and stood up. She wanted to get Prudence as far away from her friend as possible, as quick as possible. "Uh, I am going to show her the rest of the school, but we will see you guys later!" She chuckled nervously as she grabbed the girl out of her seat.

Prudence and Mora's eyes were locked in deadly stares. "Bye!"

After couple moments of tense silence, Elijah was the first to speak up, "What just happened?"

"That was riveting," Susie mumbled.

"I honestly thought they were seconds away from tearing each others hair out." The Walker girl half-joked.

Mora hadn't been invested in the conversation taking place, her mind was going frantic with her thoughts about mysterious, infuriatingly rude cousin. Who the hell did she think she was? Mora scoffed.


	5. Chapter FIVE

Deep in the Greendale woods, five not-to-be-messed-with witches trekked along the tree lines of Moon Valley in search of a someone, the only one who had ever spurned her title as Queen. In the hopes for her to help shed some light on the true intentions of the Feast of Feasts.

On the other side of the woods, another group of five were scavenging along but not for the same purposes.

Now normally hunting trips in the Kinkle family was strictly a 'men only' thing but this year, however, Mora had other ideas. She just couldn't leave Harvey to fend for himself for hours, with their dad and grandpa. Even if Tommy would have been by his side.

So when the men were about to leave, she ran down the stairs dressed in a burgundy red plaid shirt she tied in a knot just under her belly button. And over that shirt, she wore a dark blue vest matched some blue jeans and a pair of brown hunting boots.

"Ready?" She asked the group as she stood next to Tommy.

"Woah woah woah, where do you think you're going, missy?" Jeff inquired.

"Hunting, obviously," She answered.

The senior had the nerve to laugh, "And who let you think that?"

"Didn't realize I needed permission," She responded hotly.

"Listen, hunting has been a part of the Kinkle tradition for a while and-"

"And the last time a checked I am a Kinkle. So I have as much right to join as everyone in this room. Unless the reason why you don't want me to join is that you're feeling threatened by a 'little girl', as you put it." She challenged, "It's the 21st century, it's time you keep up."

Everyone stood silent, all holding their breaths to see what Jeff's reaction will be at Mora's defiance. They could see his jaw tighten and his eyes scrutinizing the teenager.

"Exactly like your father," he commented under his breath, but everyone heard.

They then looked to him and saw him looking at the ground, body tense.

"Alright," He said finally, "Alright, she wants to come with, so be it. We'll see if you truly have the stomach for it." And he left out the front door.

And that was how she found herself walking beside her twin, a hunting rifle strapped over her shoulder, listening to her grandfather's storytelling.

"This part of the forest is where the Kinkle men have always hunted," Mora rolled her eyes catching the intended emphasis on 'men' as her grandfather continued, "They used to call it Moon Valley. I'll tell ya, I've seen some strange things out here."

"Might wanna cut down on the drinking then," Mora whispered. Tommy nudged her as if to reprimand, but she could see the amused smile he was trying to suppress.

They soon came across a deer that was peacefully eating, completely undisturbed.

"Oh that's a beauty," Jeff laid his hand on his son's rifle that he had raised, intending on shooting the animal.

"This is Harvey's hunt. He should do the honors." They both looked back to the confused boy. Once it dawned on him, he nervously stepped forward. Mora could see he was practically trembling in his boots. She knew her brother wasn't a killer, he couldn't hurt a fly. She didn't want him to close himself off when they got home, consumed with guilt as she was sure he'd do.

As Harvey took a deep breath about to aim his target, Mora cut in, "Actually I wanna try."

"Wait your turn." Her grandfather growled impatiently.

She went protest when Harvey stopped her, "Mora it's okay, I can do it." He said understanding what she was trying to do for him and he was grateful but he wanted to do this. Prove to his dad that he wasn't coward.

Mora hesitated but seeing the decisiveness in his eyes she nodded, giving him a smile of encouragement.

Taking another deep breath, Harvey raised his firearm held in his shaking hands. He tried to steady himself as best as he could but it was still noticeable by his siblings. He aimed at the animal, exhaled, then...

*

BANG!

Prudence and Sabrina had found themselves in a heated argument when a gunshot was heard near the distance, causing the group of women to jump in surprise and worry.

"What have you done? Who else have you brought to this place?" Desmelda demanded angrily. The old woman believed that these foolish girls had brought unwanted company to her home. A safe place she had been able to live in peace for decades. And now they could have put it in jeopardy.

"No, one I swear" Ms Wardwell promised but Desmelda didn't believe her.

"Go! And never come back!"

The four girls and they're 'chaperone' gathered their things and quickly left. As they walked they stumbled upon a dead deer on the ground, but this particular dear was no ordinary creature.

"Ms. Wardwell, what is it?" Sabrina slowly made her way towards the dead thing.

"It was a familiar."

"Many of them live in Moon Valley," Dorcas added.

"Who would do such a thing?"

"Men."

In the distance, they heard someone shout, "Hey Dad, over here." It caused a minor panic to the group as they thought of consequences of mortals discovering them and the being they most probably just killed.

"Quickly, take the wool yarn. Form a pentagram around the creature." The girls did as told and stood at their mark.

"Wait, Ms Wardwell, what are we doing?" The blonde inquired.

"Pulling the wool over their eyes." She simply said. "Don't speak. Stay very quiet or the cloaking won't take."

Just as she finishes her warning, Harvey appeared out, his family right behind him. They were looking for the deer that had just been taken down but they weren't seeing it anywhere. Deep down, he hoped he had missed the shot and the loud sound scared it off, but he knew that it hit it. Which is why it confused him when he all he was met with was an empty space.

"Blood stops here. Where the hell is the damn thing?"

"That was a kill-shot, it shouldn't even have gotten this far."

Mora had been the last to show up in the group as she was told to double-check near some bushes not far away, but she hands seen anything."

"I checked that side and it's not there." She told the others, her gaze on the ground, watching where she steps.

Lilith had been surprised to see Mora here as she hadn't accounted her in her plans. Sabrina was surprised because from what Harvey had told her, it was strictly an all-boys thing. Prudence, weirdly enough, was surprised too. But she didn't know why. She guessed she just hadn't expected to see the ignorant mortal again so soon, or ever.

When Mora had stopped walking, she lifted her head and her eyes widened at what she saw.

"Harvey! Tommy!" The boy jumped startled, "Watch where you point that thing!" She quickly ran up to them and raised the head of their shotguns to face the sky.

"Jesus," She sighed in relief at the same time as Sabrina did. Lilith had been watching Mora closely since she appeared and she could have sworn she looked right at her. And not like how the boys here had been looking. Because she knew to them they were gazing around an empty space.

She felt as if Mora had looked at her. But maybe her mind was playing tricks on her. She decided to mutter the cloaking spell so very softly one more time while the girl was still facing her brother because something was off.

When Mora turned around, about to ask her friend if she was alright, she froze.

"Where'd they go?"

"Where'd who go?"

"Well, Sabrina," she said in an obvious tone, and all five of the witches eyes widened, "And her cousin and Ms. Wardwell." Harvey still looked lost. "Th-there were two other girls with them."

"Mora, you're not making any sense, we're the only ones here," Tommy told his little sister gently.

"You're honestly telling me you guys happened to miss five grown human beings standing right here in the open? Stop messing with me."

She didn't believe them one bit and thought they were just pulling a lame prank on her and they would fess up but as she looked at their faces for a moment she saw they were serious and genuinely confused at what she was saying.

She could hear the blood from her heart pumping in her ears. No, no, not again, please.

"Come on, Harvey. Cut it out." She said meekly, wanting him to reassure her. She turned to Tommy and she saw he softly shook his head, telling her nothing was there, a look of concern on his face.

"But- No, she was- what?"

Jeff gives out a throaty chuckle which brought Mora's attention to him, "I see she's still talking crazy. I'd have thought after all these years you'd outgrow that childish nonsense of yours. If your Daddy had some good sense, he'd had shipped you off to an asylum long ago 'cause that's where you belong, for being a weak lunatic." The teenage girl was frozen, trembling right where she stood. Her face also flushed red but this wasn't from shame or fear, oh no. It was from the pure rage that kept building and building the more he spoke.

Now Lilith was someone who knew when to choose her battles and in dire situations, she would at the very least gather up patience, knowing a perfect time will arise for her to get back at her enemies.

But right here and now she was struggling to find some of that patience and to not dismember six of the man's extremities right then and there.

Harvey saw that she about to snap so he stood next to her and gripped the fist she had balled uptight, trying to contain herself. Not surprisingly, he managed to calm her down as she took deep breaths. She would be fine.

That was if Jeff hadn't commented at the end, "Maybe you got it from the women on your mama's side."

"Stop," His son growled angrily to him, not liking that remark at all. He went too far.

Fuck staying calm. She saw red.

"You little piece of shit." Papa Kinkle's eyes widened a fraction. She ripped her hands from Harvey marched angrily towards the man, "Oh I'll show you crazy—" She only made it three steps before Tommy grabbed her tingly by the elbow, not wanting her to get in trouble. Not that he would let his grandpa get even close enough to do anything to her. "Woah, woah, woah, woah"

"What do we do now?" Harvey asked as a means to distract him, stepping in front of his sister doing a poor job at trying to separate them and keeping her out of his sights.

Jeff took a few seconds to collect himself at the disrespect his granddaughter was showing him, then brought his thoughts back to the reason they were in this damn forest.

"We keep searching. I want that prize." And he walked away. As he left his son was turned to follow but not before looking back towards his daughter.

"Harvey, you go ahead. Keep them busy a bit." Tommy told his brother. You could see he hadn't wanted to leave her but he knew Tommy was the best at handling Mora. He nodded and obliged. 

"Hey, you alright?" He let go of the hold he had on her and gently rubbed her shoulder. She gave him a look and he winced, "Right, stupid."

Mora took a step back, some anger still in her as she started to rant, "One day, I swear to God that man—"

"Exactly, one more day and he's gone. I know he went too far this time and I'm sorry but let's try not to smother him tonight. At the very least we could spit in his food." He joked, and Mora would usually snort at his attempt but she was still pissed. "Just hold on for a while then you can breathe for the next year.

"Then we get to enjoy this whole shit show again next time." She said sarcastically. Tommy just smiled sadly. She sighed, "Okay. One more day." Tommy nodded and pulled her in for a hug.

"How about a PIC&M night, tonight? You haven't shut up about that Annabelle movie," he offered as the pulled apart.

"You would watch it with me?"

"Even though I know I'm mostly gonna regret it." He winced, just anticipating the night ahead.

A 'PIC&M night' meant 'pancake, ice-cream and movie night'. Basically it was a sort of tradition the siblings made up when they were younger for when either of them needed a pick-me-up after a tough day or if they just wanted to hang out. Tommy came up with the idea after he found her crying her eyes out when other kids had been bullying her, calling her a crazy freak.

They would usually watch a movie of her choice and she would more often than not opt for a horror. She goes nuts for those. He and Harvey, on the other hand, would do their best to avoid them. He knew he would feel contrite about it the next morning after a night of little to no sleep but it would be worth it. She was his little bug. He's already seeing how her mind was now off the previous event.

Just like that her mood was lifted but didn't want to show him yet, "And It?" She asked sheepishly, giving her best innocent doe eyes.

He closed his eyes, "The things I go through for you." She smiled. "Come on lets' go."

"Yeah, just give me a second."

"Alright," As he turned his back to her, her smile slowly faded.

She didn't want to think it but she thought maybe the old codger could have been right. What if she was going insane again? It had been hell for her growing up before she found Elijah and the others.

She hadn't been taking her meds for years now as she had started to get better. Or so she thought she had.

But I'm was positive I saw them. Then again, isn't that what crazy people swore?

Hesitantly, she looked down as brought her hands up and opened her palms. Sure enough, there were deep nail marks from when she clenched her fists. Inspecting her hands, she notes that blood was still coming out of the open wounds but not as much as before. It was practically covering her palms and some were in between her nails.

It now stung a bit since she was aware of them but until she got back home she couldn't do anything about it.

She exhaled before she finally followed in the same direction as the others.

The second the brunette was out of sight, the witches broke the formation. As Sabrina was looking longingly to were them left, thinking about earthing that they witnessed... Harvey, Prudence spoke first.

"Once a hunter, always a hunter."

"Harvey is not a hunter," Sabrina defended.

"Thought you must admit he certainly looks the parts, Sabrina." Ms Wardwell points out.

"More than looks it. He is a witch hunter. His family are witch hunters." Though somewhere in her deep down, a small part of her didn't place Mora in that group. Something about was different about her. Something that separated her from the others, she couldn't put her finger on it. "He told you himself."

"Then blood demands blood, that is the law." Agatha hissed.

"Blood atonement for the murder of this familiar," Dorcas spat.

"I warned you, Prudence, that if you lay a hand on him I will kill you. Back off." Sabrina reminded Prudence fiercely, not standing for hearing them threatened Harvey's life.

"Perhaps instead of letting you drag me to the four corners, my last hours would be better spent flaying your boyfriend alive."

"Rending him limb from limb," Agatha added. The three girls were now circled around the blonde witch, making her slightly scared but she didn't show it.

"Keep away from him. Harvey's not a killer." Her voice cracked a little at the end.

"You believe that, Sabrina? Even with what we just saw?"

"Yes. Yes." She answered instantly.

Good. That was exactly what she wanted her to say. The taller girl then asked, "How is your faith in the mortal boy any different than my faith in the Dark Lord? Why is your faith more valid than mine?"

To be honest, Sabrina didn't know what to say after that.

* * *

It was Thanksgiving day and 40% of the Kinkle family were passed out cold in the living room, television on, snores filling the room heard all the way to the kitchen where the other 60% were sat at the kitchen table eating a dinner prepared by the little Kinkle. 

Nothing fancy or difficult, just a main course of turkey and jus gravy, paired with a side of orange-cranberry relish, roasted carrots, potatoes and celery root mash and some wheat rolls. Finally, for dessert, Mora had made a caramel apple cobbler. 

"This happens every year. They start drinking before breakfast and pass out before lunch." Harvey snorts.

"So it's just us." Tommy took a bite of his food. "I'm okay with that."

"Same." Mora smiles at her family, and Harvey does too.

"Happy Thanksgiving, you guys." He said.

Tommy salutes him with a fork and takes a bite, "Happy thanksgiving, nerd. You too, bug." He ruffled the top of her hair and the boys laugh when she swats his hand away glaring at him. 

"Yeah yeah, Happy Thanksgiving, jerks." she fixes her hair and they go back to eating, sort of at peace with their uneventful dinner. If only they'd known that soon, very soon, things wouldn't stay so peaceful.

Because the morning after, Harvey and Tommy had gone in to work at the mines while they had left Mora at home who said she wanted to have 'a quiet chill day to herself'. 

"Hey, nerd. You know what the best thing about working the Friday after Thanksgiving is?"

"Getting outta the house?" Harvey answered.

"Time-and-a-half pay." Tommy smiled and handed their timecards to Harvey for him to clock them in. 

Once that was done the gathered their equipment, playfully shoving each other as they head to their post preparing themselves for what they assumed was to be yet another boring shift.

* * *

Mora was in her bedroom sat on her bed. So far she was enjoying her day. On her bed too were bits and parts for the drone she had decided to try and make. 

She was singing along to the music that was playing from her radio when her phone had rung. Stretching over to her bedside table, she turned down the volume of her radio and grabbed her phone.

"Hello?" she answered, placing her phone between her ear and shoulder as she continued screwing pieces together. 

Her hands suddenly froze as she listened to what the person on the other side said.

Whatever was in her hands fell to the bed as she lost all feeling in her body.

"What?"


	6. Chapter SIX

Her lungs felt like they would burst and her throat was felt dry, so uncomfortably dry. Tears blinded her as she ran as quickly as her long legs could carry her, vaguely aware of the stinging it brought her, bolting through the forest like an Olympic champion at start gun; quickening her pace to an all-out sprint.

A gunshot fire that rang in the distance had caused a flock of startled birds to fly off.

By a ranch, at the back of a house, were two of the Kinkle members. A gun nestled in the arms of the eleven-year-old female, and her seventeen-year-old brother supervising.

"Urgh, I can't do it." The tween huffed in frustration as they both looked at the target she, yet again, missed.

"Yes, you can,"

"No, I can't. I suck," she put the weapon down and crossed her arms, "And dad's gonna hate me more than he already does." She furrowed her brows. Looking down, she lightly kicked the sand under her boot.

"Woah, Dad doesn't hate you. Were did you get that idea from?" He stepped closer towards her.

"He just does. I can tell. I feel it when he sees me. He treats me differently and unfairly. And he doesn't spend time with me. So maybe if I could get this one thing right, I could go hunting with him and show him that he could be proud of me." She explains her full proof plan.

Tom sighed, knowing why their father was more distant towards the girl who was trying so hard to get his approval. He felt guilty he couldn't explain it to her. He crouched down,

"Listen, Dad doesn't hate you alright? I'm not gonna make excuses for him. He should speak to you himself," he didn't want to add more than necessary there, "but I know for a fact that no one could hate you. It's just not scientifically possible," He teased.

"You're kind, super smart, funny and well, you're not too ugly, just some big ears..." he joked again, Mora hit him on the shoulder feigning offence.

"Ouch, and strong, too, apparently," He rubbed pretending it hurt, seeing the proud look in her eyes.

"So anyone one who doesn't appreciate your awesomeness, well it's less dead weight for you, isn't it?" She smiled, nodding.

"And you should know without a doubt, that whatever happens in future I would never ever not care about. You're my family until the end of time. Got it?"

"Got it."

"Good. Now, come on, let's try this again shall we."

Fixing her posture and taking in his advice, she was able to hit a bullseye. "Wooh! Do you see that? That's even better than how I shoot now."

Mora was so giddy with excitement and proud at herself at his reaction. From then on, she didn't fight so hard to get others approval.

The pounding noise of her boots resonating as her feet hit the hard ground, crushing the dried leaves and dead twigs were overlapped by her heavy breathing. Her heart pulsating hard inside of her chest with thick grief and fear she felt as she ran. Her clothes and hair, slick with perspiration, clung to her skin.

"No one likes me," a six-year-old Mora sniffed as she hid under the covers. For some time now she had been bullied at school. The other kids were cruel, calling her mean names and not letting her play with them or sit together at lunch.

But she had survived it because she had at least one friend. At least she did, until that day.

"I like you. And Tommy does too,"

"Everyone at s-school c-calls me a weirdo and Emma s-stopped being my f-friend tod-today. She said she didn't want to be-be around me anymore. She said she f-found a new bestie." She stuttered, but her twin understood every word.

"Well, I think you are weird," Harvey said with a straight face. Mora almost burst into fresh new tears again before he said continued, "And that's so awesome. We need a few weirdos in this world, otherwise, iss just too boring if you ask me." He shrugged as if it was obvious.

"Like Miss Gertrude's oatmeal cookies," That managed to get a teary giggle out of her. Everyone loved Miss Gertrude and her little dog Pimka, but bless her sweet old heart her pastries were, kindly put, unappetizing.

She wheezes as her burning lungs gasps for air, but she doesn't stop. She can't. She kept on.

Mora then peeked out of the covers, just a bit, to find her twin staring at her expectantly. She then completely pulled the covers down and slowly sat up right. She tried to wipe her snot covered nose as Harvey held with her tears. The six-year-old boy was happy he was able to get her to stop crying. But he could still see she was hurting and all the little guy wanted was for her to feel completely better.

He then had an idea. Without saying a word he left the room, leaving Mora confused and the sadness came back thinking that even her own brothers would leave her. But before she could think too much into it, he returned and ran straight for her bed.

He climbed on and sat right in front of her, his legs crisscrossed.

What was different about the picture was that he now held a black permanent marker that he snatched from Tom's room.

He then grabbed her hand and started to write something on her left wrist.

"What are you doing?" Mora couldn't see cause his big head was blocking her line of sight.

Harvey was hard at work, concentrating on making it perfect. He had just started to take an interest in drawing and he was rarely new, but this was an important assignment. He put his all into it.

When he was done she was finally able to see what was drawn on her pale wrist.

"What does it mean?" She asked confused, eyes going over the doodles. It was a fairly simply drawn arrow with the word 'double' splitting it in half. The second was a cute looing piece of toast with short waving arms and legs.

"It means that us weirdos gotta stick together, and if anyone messes with you they can find during recess." He said simply but serious and handed her the marker and his own left wrist.

Mora looked at him with the biggest smile, showing her pearly white teeth with two missing wholes, and he knew he did good. Mora went right ahead and tried to duplicate the fake tattoo only changing the word to 'trouble'.

Unsurprisingly, the markings washed out in a few days but they just came up with the idea that it only absorbed in their skin and went into their DNA, so it was now a part of them forever.

When she arrived at her destination she gave herself a moment to take in all the chaos.

Cops, firefighters and paramedics were all at the scene, stationed randomly around the area. Firefighters were rushing trying to get as many men as they could to safety. Those who couldn't walk at all were being carried out of the mines via gurneys. Medical teams trying their best to aid them as they were in pain, screaming in agony. Looking closely you could see the men were clearly in shock, friends and families trying their best to console them.

People were trying to get past the deputies, who had created a blockade, to find their loved ones praying they weren't in any life-threatening danger.

Mora couldn't breathe as she scanned the place searching for her own family.

She did a double-take when she suddenly spotted Tom from the corner of her eye. She brought a hand over her mouth to cover the relieved sob but before she could relax, something about the situation didn't sit well with her.

There was something about the way he was staring at her, completely stoic of emotion. Everything around seemed to go so slow as she kept her gaze on him, urging him in her mind to run to her, smile, move, do... something. But he just stood there. Looking usually pale and stiff.

Something's wrong, she thought scared.

Gulping, she took small wavering steps towards her older brother. She was about to call out to him when he just suddenly vanishes after someone ran in front of her. Everything went back to its normal speed as soon as it happened.

She immediately halted her steps, eyes wide as her breath caught in her throat. Her mind was running miles per minute as she spun around searching for her brother again, trying to find a reason for what just happened.

She hadn't found Tom again but fortunately, after what seemed like forever, yelling her father and brothers' names out, she finally saw Harvey sitting under a nearby tent, a blanket wrapped over his shoulders getting helped by a nurse. She could see him trembling from where she stood.

She immediately took off in a dash and engulfed him a tight embraced when she reached him.

"You're okay, you're okay, you're alright. You're here." She repeated over and over as her vision became so blurred she couldn't see anything more than a 10 centimeters away. She felt him hug her back just as tightly.

After a minute or two she reluctantly let go of him but didn't step back too far, inspecting him closely. His face was matted with dust and dried blood on his forehead. His clothes were all dirty and ripped on most parts.

And she had been right, he was shaking in his boots, eyes bloodshot for the dust of the mine but she guessed mostly from the crying he's probably been doing.

He was pretty banged up but the important thing was that he was breathing, so she could relax a little easier.

"Harvey, what happened?" She asked frantically, "I got a call from cops saying there was a huge accident in the mines. Said I needed to-to come as soon as I c-could. To possibly help identify bodies— God, I-I ran as fast as I could." She spoke fast.

"I-I don't know, everything was fine then suddenly the cave started to shake, the rocks above started to crack. May-maybe someone hit a soft spot. I don't know." He retold, "I-I made it out in time. But there are five guys still in there— Mora, Tommy's one of them."

She couldn't breathe, it felt as if someone was choking her. She tried to calm her racing heart that was pounding so hard she heard it threw her ears. All she wanted to do was curl up in a ball and wait for someone to tell her this was all huge prank or that she misunderstood or something. But no one would fess up. A choked cry for wanted to come out but she forced it down her throat, and she quickly wiped away her tears though she felt more streams run down her cheek.

"What-what about dad? Have you seen him?"

"Yeah, he's okay. He went back to help some of the guys after he checked up on me." Mora's shoulders eased a bit but not too much, since not everyone was accounted for. "I think he's trying to find Tommy, too."

She was about to say something when they heard a familiar female voice behind them.

"Excuse me. Have you seen Harvey Kinkle? He's got brown hair and-and—"

"Sabrina!"

The blonde spun around at the familiar voice and almost sobbed at the sight before her. Mora took a step back to give them some space as she ran up to him.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you," She muttered.

Once their hug ended, Harvey proceeds to tell her what he told his sister. "Oh no," Sabrina said in despair.

"I need to get back in. I can't leave him in there." Harvey stood up but Sabrina tried pushing him back with all her might.

"Hey, hey, hey hold on. Hold on. Harvey, you look like you're still in shock."

"Yeah, you need to take a minute okay." His sister suggested but he wasn't having it. He couldn't get himself to stay still while his brother could quite possibly be dead.

"No, I gotta find my Dad." And he took off without another word. Sabrina tried to stop him but he was already gone.

Mora sighed, "I'll go with him, make sure he's okay." She told her friend, but before she turned. To leave she said to her, "'Brina if—if you hear anything about Tom—"

"I'm coming straight to find you. Don't worry they'll get him out just fine." The witch tried to reassure but they both knew it was futile. Nonetheless, Mora appreciated it and sent her a tiny smile and went to follow her distraught twin.

As Sabrina watched as the two left, Elijah, Susie and Roz showed up carrying a box each, "Sabrina!"

"Are they okay?" The petite girl asked.

"I don't know. Harvey was in the mines when it happened." Sabrina explained briefly. "Mora's shaken up, too. They think Tommy's still in there."

"Oh, my God."

"We should, um... Let's find somewhere to set up so we can start helping."

"Yeah, we'll find them later. They've got more important things to worry up." Elijah spoke, "Come on, I saw a spot over there." And the others followed, save for Sabrina, her worry for the Kinkles kept growing exponentially.

"Sabrina!" Susie called, bringing her out of her daze.

* * *

Elijah found Mora sat alone under a tree a few hours later. Everything had settled down a bit more after the hour, but search and rescue were still trying to find some sort of holy grail. Those who were able to, were told to go home and rest and others with more severe injuries were sent to the hospital. Those who were left were giving out hot meals or helping any way they could to comfort others.

Which made Elijah think that his best friend had spent enough time on her own and she needed someone right now. When he saw her, he noted that her usually tanned glowing skin had turned into a pale complexion, eyes red-rimmed and puffy from crying. In her hands, she held a cup of that nasty coffee that was served but she didn't move to drink it. Her eyes were just blankly staring ahead of her. She just looked tired.

He sighed and sat down next to her. They were silent for the longest time. Elijah trying to think of a way to snap her out of her trance-like state, but turns out he didn't need to when she suddenly spoke.

"I can feel it. I—" she took a moment to compose herself, "I don't know how, but I can feel it. I can sense he's gone."

Elijah's heart broke at the soft fragile tone she spoke at. He wanted to contradict. To tell her not to lose hope. Tell her that though it seems they've come up a little dry, they were gonna find him and they weren't gonna stop until they do. But something in the way she looked, with this... hopeless certainty brought the words to a halt.

He watched her as she took in a shaky breath and didn't know what to say. And to be honest Mora didn't want him to say anything and he knew that. So he did all he could and brought her in his arms in a comforting hug. She placed her head in the crook of his neck and he laid his own to rest on top of hers and fell back in silence.

The moment was broken when they heard her father's stern voice call out to the crowd that had formed by the cave's entrance.

"What the hell is going on here?"

The teens stood up confused and made their way over to understand what the commotion was all about. As they finally made a hole through, Mora's entire body just went completely lax as her vision blurred from tears that formed at the devastating scene before her.

Susie had been covered in dirt, head-to-toe due to her reckless but brave act of going into the tunnels trying to look for survivors. She had heard that no one was able to fit in, so Susie must have had the dangerous idea to head in herself.

But what really caught her attention was the bloodied and smashed hardhat that was handed to her father which she recognized right away.

"That's Tommy's hat." Harvey had informed and you could hear as the whole forest went quiet.

"Did we— Did we find him?" Mora's hand covered her mouth as if it'll block the vomit that wanted to get out.

Though she had voiced her anxieties out to Elijah, it didn't mean she wanted it to be true. God, was she wishing for that rotten feeling to go away. But she had been right ultimately. He brother was gone. They all knew it, now.

But the only one who seemed to not believe was Harvey. He made his way to the cave, "Well then, we gotta keep looking, we gotta—"

"And we will." Her father, who had been silent the entire time, finally spoke. "But not right now. It's turning into a shit-show in there. The faster we dig the more the tunnel collapses. We don't have the right equipment but we're getting it tomorrow. We'll pick up again then." He told him then turned to the crowd, ignoring his son's disbelieving gaze.

"Thank you all for coming for coming here but unless you're all an employee of the mine or a rescue worker for the town of Greendale, I need you all to go home." When he saw no one was moving he insisted, "Really folks, thank you for the support." And everyone concerned started to leave.

"Dad, what if tomorrow's too late?" Harvey tried.

"Boy, don't you start with me."

Mora knew that Harvey was in denial and hurting. It'll ultimately hurt more later on when he really comes to terms with it but the way her father was talking to him, now of all times, made her blood boil.

"Show a little sympathy, will you?" She spat, brown eyes still wet. "This is hard on him, okay so try cut him some slack."

"We are doing our best." He told them as calmly as he could when he knew she was right. But it was hard for him, too. He left the teens alone wanting to be left alone to think.

"Harvey."

"I-i think I'm gonna head home. Get cleaned up." He said, not really present.

"Okay. I'll meet you there."

He nodded once then left. Mora just stood there staring into the entrance when she felt a hand grabs her shoulder. She spun around, slightly startled as she looked to find Elijah hadn't left.

"Come on, ill take you home. Or if you want we can go to mine ." He offered.

"No, I— I'm gonna take a walk. I just need— I..."

Elijah didn't feel comfortable leaving her alone at a time like this. And he's never felt comfortable with it every time she does this 'cause he knows her. This is a sign that she might pull away. But he knew he'd always be there to pull her back.

He would have offered to join her but she'd just refuse. So reluctantly he said, "Call me to know you're home safe, okay? I mean it, I'll wait up all night for your call if I have to."

Mora was hella grateful to have a friend like him. She sent him the best smile she could muster to show her gratitude, "I will, I promise."

The grieving brunette then made her way to the forest, still feeling her best friend's worried gaze on her back. But she didn't turn around. She needed to get the hell away from there.

She couldn't think straight. Turns out that the walk that was supposed to clear her head was doing the opposite.

Her mind was spinning out of control, overthinking every detail of what transpired the past twenty-four hours.

She was most of all worried about how the effects of Tom's death would have on her family. Without their pillar, she knew for sure they would all crumble.

She thought about how they would never be able to hear his laughter after he told one of his god awful jokes. Or receive one of his warm hugs after they've had a bad day. Or having him hold their hand while they went through something new and scary. Having him say, "If you got through the last terrifying thing, this should be a piece of cake."

Or hear him telling you that he would always be by your side no matter what, cause that's what big brothers do.

Only now his promise of staying with them forever had been a lie. And that's what pained her so deeply.

She felt like she couldn't breathe. Her lungs were felt compressed, her head was foggy, she couldn't see clearly and she was shaking all over.

She couldn't take it anymore. She did the only thing that seemed right. That felt right. 

She inhaled deep and screamed.


	7. Chapter SEVEN

Prudence hadn't expected to find her on her knees, tears streaming down her face.

She was on her way back to the Academy that night when she suddenly felt this tsunami of power wash over. Same as every supernatural being, more specifically witches, within a 100-mile radius; the Spellmans, Father Blackwood, Nicholas, even the Mother of all Demons had a moment of worry.

But Prudence had been the closest to the source. So, she ventured a bit farther wanting to find where it had come from, only to be met with the sight of a brunette girl she recognized. It couldn't have possibly come from her. She was a mortal. Even if she could be a witch, she gave off the impression that she was clueless about the existence of magic. She was just as naive as all the others. Prudence dismissed the ridiculous idea on that argument.

Maybe the serge came from somewhere else. She'd find it later.

Because right now, here the female witch hunter was. Looking so broken and couldn't help but wonder why. Now, normally, if Prudence had come across someone in such a state she would have kept walking, not giving them a second of her precious time. She simply doesn't care much for anyone besides herself and her sisters.

So why she had cautiously made her way to the sobbing figure, in hopes not to frighten her was beyond the witch.

Mora heard footsteps coming from her right and ceased her crying to focus on what could potentially be a wild animal looking for a late-night snack. She was an idiot for staying out so late.

But when she looked up she locked eyes with Sabrina's cousin. Prudence, was it?

"What are you doing out here so late?" Prudence was the first to speak.

She wiped her tears and stood, "I could ask you the same."

"I was taking a walk. Saw you, here." She hesitated, "Is... everything okay?"

"Yeah. I'm great, thanks."

She knew what she was doing. She recognized it well. And again she doesn't understand why she was pushing her for an honest answer, "I'd beg to differ."

Seeing that she wouldn't let it go she told her, "Something personal happened, something bad. I'm just in the middle a shitty position right now."

Though it wasn't much to go on, Prudence was fine with that little piece of information. To be honest, she didn't know her, so she could understand why she wouldn't want to spill it all out to a complete stranger.

She just nodded, "I'm sure everything will come together in the end, Mora."

Mora knew it wouldn't but didn't have the energy to counter the statement, so she just kept quiet. For now, she wanted to change the subject.

"You remember my name," she stated,

"Why wouldn't I?"

"Well I don't know if you recall but our first meeting wasn't exactly the best of first impressions."

"I seem to recall it being that way because of your stubborn behaviour."

"Funny, I always thought it was the concerning amount of egocentrism you possess that turned the whole atmosphere sour," she replied without missing a beat.

Prudence simply smirked at the quick-witted girl, "You have to admit it is quite unique to simply forget." The other girl furrowed her brows slightly.

"Your name."

She scoffed, "Right, well you'll just love my full name."

"Which is?" She took a step forward.

The brunette paused for a second, "Morasha."

Seeing the look of astonishment in the girl's eyes she added, "Yeah I know, try not to laugh. It's weird."

"I would never. Names are sacred, chosen by those who care for you. It would be rude of me to laugh." She took another step, arms crossed. "I was merely thinking of how it suits you." Prudence was surprising herself at how honest she was being.

"Do you even know what it means?"

Mora simply shook her head, not haven ever given her name deep thought. She always thought it was a random name her mother gave her.

Prudence expected this, most mortals never cared for their origins. "It means 'Legacy'. It isn't weird. Its strength. Take pride in it."

Now Mora hadn't thought their conversation would turn out like this, at all. She saw how sincere she was with her words which she then shockingly realized she believed in them. Which was crazy seeing this was only the second conversation they've had.

She kept her eyes on her trying to figure the strange girl out. She only stopped when she realized her staring would come off as creepy as it was.

"Uhm.. I should probably be going home now. My brother must be worried sick." Just like that she remembered why she out in the woods in the first place as her grief came rushing back and she tried her damnedest to push it away.

Her conversation with Prudence however brief was able to distract her from her personal situation that would be waiting for her when she came back to earth, and for that she was grateful.

"Of course," Prudence understood as she saw her mood dim slightly, "Perhaps our paths may cross again."

"Perhaps," Mora replied simply. And she found herself wanting to see the girl again.

"Goodnight, Morasha."

She tried ignoring the subtle flutter she felt in her stomach when she said her name and responded, "Goodnight, Prudence."

At that moment a wolf howl brought Mora's gaze away from Prudence's in its direction. Not even five seconds later, she turned back to the girl who had kept her company only to find an empty space in front of her.

*

To say that the twins were pissed would be an understatement. The next morning as Mora was getting ready for a dreadful day she heard angry voices arguing downstairs. Leaving her room to check it out, she was met with Harvey, her dad and a man in a suit.

"What's going on?" She asked.

"Mora—"

"This is Mr. Morris," Harvey spat, "He's from the bank. Wanna know what he's doing here?"

"Harv—"

"He's here to discuss the terms of the insurance claim and we haven't even found a body."

"What?"

The father of thre—two sighed knowing it would have turned out like this. He turned to his guest so as to not witness the disaster that was about to happen. "Thank you sir, let me show you the way out."

"Right, of course, we'll keep in touch." He turned to the kids, "I am very sorry," he said but they didn't care for his half-assed condolences. They wanted him out and they wanted answers.

Once the door shut, Mora began before her father could utter a word out, "Really, Dad? His body isn't even cold yet and you already wanna cash in. Is that all he is to you? A bloody check?" She seethed.

"Don't you dare say that to me. I loved your brother more than anything."

"Well, you have a funny way of showing it," Harvey said dragging a frustrated hand through his hair. Normally he wasn't one two raise his voice towards his dad but to hell with that now, he was seeing red.

"Enough!" He's reached his limit he understood they were grieving but so was he. They had no right to talk back to him since he was the one putting food on their plates. "Last I checked I'm the parent here, I don't need to explain my decisions to my kids. This isn't up for debate anymore. it's done." Harvey shook his head in disbelief and stormed out the house, slamming the door behind him.

"Well, that's just awesome," Was all she said before she went to her room, leaving the remaining Kinkle frustrated.

* * * 

At the Academy, a warlock had approached two of his acquaintances, if he would call them that, asking about the whereabouts of a certain blonde Spellman.

"Oh didn't you hear, Nicky? There was a terrible accident at the mines."

"A bunch of mortals died."

"What? You mean like her boyfriend?"

Agatha managed to hide her the devious smirk that wanted to appear, "His brother. It's tragic, really," She said by faux empathy was heard.

"Or it would be..."

"If the Kinkles weren't a family of dirty witch hunters." Agatha continued.

"Funeral's tomorrow."

"Heard they're burying an empty casket." Dorcas chuckled as the went on their separate ways.

It was by sheer coincidence that Prudence happened to walk by on her way to her next class. Hearing the conversation filled her with a certain pit in her stomach that she didn't like since on any other day she wouldn't have thought anything of it. But the fact that they were talking about the Kinkles her mind went to the girl she spoke to in the woods two nights ago.

She was no idiot. If there was indeed something tragic that happened in the Greendale mines, it was no accident.

She then knew who she had to talk to and it was filling her up with dread just thinking about it. But first, she had to see someone else.

The next day at the Spellman Mortuary, Thomas Kinkle's funeral was taking place, where it seems all of Greendale has come to pay their respects, except for one.

Mora was sat at the back of Harvey's truck, in her black dress, her legs dangling over the edge, her mind trying not to think of what was currently going on but it was kinda hard not to.

She didn't exactly plan on waiting the funeral out. She managed to wake herself up this morning, managed to get dressed, even got some food down though it was just an apple. She barely realized when they arrived at the Mortuary. She was able to walk through the doors. She went through all the words and hugs of consolation given by seemingly everyone with a smile.

It was when she turned and caught sight of the wooden casket that made her freeze. The coffin was a deep mahogany colour that was their right size to fit a grown human body. Only there was nothing inside, it was empty.

The thought made her feel even more hollow and intensified the ache she had tried pushing back all day.

"I can't do this," was all she said before running out of the building, ignoring the protests from her family and the two Spellman's, Ambrose and Zelda, Sabrina's cousin and eldest Aunt.

So she spent the past hour or so by herself, thinking of nothing if she was lucky, and thinking of anything else if she wasn't so.

She felt like such a wuss bailing out on him like that but just couldn't be in there. She sighed, just wishing for the day to be over.

"What are you doing out here?"

Mora turned to her left, locking eyes with a now-familiar blonde, and scoffed lightly.

"You just keep popping up out of nowhere. I might start to think that you're stalking me."

"Don't flatter yourself," Prudence replied, a little lift show at the corner of her mouth. "How are you?"

"I'm fine," Frowning for a second, she turned her gaze to the ground then back at her. That was a lie. No-one said anything for a moment.

"I heard what happened."

"Of course you did. This is Greendale. Everyone knows everything about everyone." Another beat of silence, "What? You're not gonna apologize for my loss, or tell me it'll get easier as time goes on. You might seem of place without some sort of homemade dish to offer to my family."

Prudence went to sit next to the girl as she spoke, "What good would that do? We both know words of comfort won't bring him back."

"Not they won't."

"I imagine today must be the worst day of your life. Is that why you're scared of going inside?"

Mora inhaled deep looking ahead of her. She didn't know the words were coming out before it was too late, "It's not afraid of going in, all I'll be getting will be pity looks, and that would just piss me off. And it's not necessarily today that I'm afraid of, It's been a cakewalk for the most part. Nor am I afraid of tomorrow. Or the day after," She paused, "It's next week. When there will be nothing but silence."

She didn't say anything more. Neither did Prudence as she took in her words. They both just sat there in silence, and Mora was perfectly fine with it.

The moment of peace was broken however when Harvey came barreling through the doors towards the Spellman's graveyard, bent over the wood fence. 

Sabrina was right behind him.

She couldn't hear much of their conversation since they were pretty far away. 

It was when she saw her father angrily walking up to him that she knew something was up. She jumped of the back of the truck and made her way to them to try and protect her twin brother. 

"You're gonna man up. That's what you're gonna do." She heard him say.

"You think it's okay for you two to embarrass me like that?" He now spoke to both of them. "In front of the other guys. To shit on Tommy's memory like that?" He grabbed onto Harvey suit in tight fists.

"Hey, stop!" 

"Let go of him Mr. Kinkle!" 

But he ignored both girls, "It shouldn't have been Tommy." He said lowly, " It should've been you."

Mora was about to burst when Harvey spoke before her, "I wish it had been me."

"Harvey.."

"I wish to God it had been me."

"Oh, you shit. You pathetic little piece of--" "No!"

He had his arm pulled back into a fist, about to strick his only living son pretty hard, when suddenly he went frozen. 

"Mr. Kinkle, this your son's funeral. Might we honour his memory and compose ourselves." Mora had never been gladder to see Zelda. She went to stand in front of Harvey just in case, though.

"Your guests are leaving I suggest you do the same."

Mora looked around to find the girl who kept her company but just like the other it was like she vanished. She was honestly starting to believe her mind is just conjuring her up. Her subconscious's way of making her talk about her feelings or something.

After the fiasco, Sabrina's other Aunt, Hilda, pulled her aside asking to speak with her for a moment.

"Dear, This is a bit unorthodox but your father left before I could talk to him. I was hoping you could pass this along." She then handed the girl a large envelope.

"What is it?"

"Its... your brother's death certificate." She spoke so softly, afraid she might upset the poor soul even more after such an already emotional day.

"Yeah, right, of course, it is." She stated, shaking her head lightly. "Um, thanks. And for the baked goods," she said grabbing the bag filled with a cake and other pastries made by her friend's Aunt. The rest of the food she prepared was in her dad's. Bless her.

"Oh, it's nothing at all, darling," Hilda gently rubbed the girl's shoulders and after giving her a weak smile she left their home wanting to go to her own.

No one was home as of yet when she finally arrived, thanks to Elijah's parents giving her a ride. She figured Harvey must still be taking a drive around to cool down. And her father, well who knows.

After setting Aunt Hilda's goods in the kitchen, she went upstairs to her room. She threw her purse and scarf on her bed. And let out a long sigh, her eyes closed. The house was so completely silent you could hear a pin drop. When she opened her brown eyes, she realized she still had Tommy's death certificate in hand. She didn't even want to open it.

She left her room making her way to her father's study so she could put it away with the rest of the important documents.

The room was only slightly messy. You could tell that space was actually being used by the files and papers littered on the desk. A coat just was thrown over a chair in front of the table, boots placed near the door. Other trinkets scattered around here and there.

Mora made her way behind the desk was a big wooden made cupboard of sorts was placed. She opened it there right side and stood on her toes to reach for the cardboard box she knew he put things in. The tip of her fingers managed to push the box forward inch by inch. But just as she thought the had a good enough grip on it, the box toppled over spilling all its content on the floor.

"Shit." She sighed but went to pack the stuff back. She was halfway through when something caught her eye. She picked up the piece of paper that caught her attention and realized it was her birth certificate.

She was about to put it back and continue on so she could get some damn sleep but she read something that made her look at it again.

"What?" She whispered to herself.

Underneath her name which was written in nice readable handwriting, 'Morasha Davinah Kinkle' was written two names she'd only just recently learned.

She rummaged through the mess on the floor finding Tommy's birth certificate: 'Matthew Kinkle' & 'Sophie Ella Jones'

Through blurred eyes she scrambled to look for Harvey's, muttering, "Please, please, please." And when she found it, her eyes darted straight for the parental section: 'Matthew Kinkle' & 'Sophie Ella Kinkle"

Right at that moment is when she felt the last of her resolve shatter.

It was night time now, and Matt had just gotten home and he was tired. He just wanted to rest after this exhausting day. He was putting his suit jacket on the single couch when he felt someone behind him. He turned around to find Mora still in her funeral wear, coat still on her, her eyes downcast. She was quiet.

"Oh, I thought you would have been with Harvey. Is he here?" His question was met with silence. "Mora, where's Harvey?" Her eyes still haven't looked up at him.

"Mora I don't have the ener—"

"What is this?"She finally spoke. Her voice slightly cracked but you could hear the edge to it. She was upset about something, he could tell.

"What?"

"What. The hell. Is this?" She finally looked up at him, and he saw her eyes were red-rimmed.

He looked down to see what she was asking about and felt his blood run cold, his face turning an unnatural pale colour. In her trembling hands, she held the one thing he wasn't ready for her to see, yet.

His silence and genuine surprise were what made it really hit as she realized it was true. 

She gave him a moment so he could explain the situation or at least ease her racing thoughts but he just kept quiet. Mouth opening and closing, like a fish out of water. "It makes sense now that I think of it. Why you've always hated me." 

She took a breath trying to control her emotions but that proved to be difficult, "I just thought it was because you wanted a son but instead had to settle for me. Turns out you had to its cause I got dumped onto you." 

The adult male felt his eyes start to sting as her words hit him. 

She didn't say anything more. She didn't want to look at him, anymore. She left the sheet of paper on a nearby table and just walked past him.

Matt covered his face in frustration thinking about how fucked up the past week had been and growled in anger before punching the wall near him, making a small dent. He breathed out as his eyes land on that damned paper.

Written under Mora's name was: 'Eric Kinkle' & 'Natasha Cardoso-Kinkle'.

*

Late in the night, three loud knocks throughout the house heard. Four more knocks were given before the door swung open.

"I hacked into the school system, I remembered seeing your address. I know this is probably not allowed and may be breaking some rules but, I've had a pretty shitty day and I don't wanna go home. So, this was the only place I could think of."

Miss Wardwell stood stunned seeing the teenager shivering and in tears by her doorstep. She didn't ask any questions, simply ushered her inside and closed the door behind them.


	8. Chapter EIGHT

The silence was like a poison to them, for in that void of sound the shallowness of their conversation was laid bare. What used to be an intellectual banter of society and politics and few comedic moments here and there was utterly vapid.

And she hadn't meant to disrupt the time her friends were having together. She never arranged on sharing the newfound information with them, if she was being honest. She didn't want anything to change. She wanted their dynamic to stay the same.

She planned on just going with her life as if her world hadn't just flipped on its axis and ignore it.

But it was hard. It was all her mind would go back to. And before she even realized it the secret spewed passed her lips, it being the first thing she's said since she joined them at Dr Cerberus'.

"Adopted?" Elijah dared to speak first.

"Yep," Mora mumbled.

Susie cautiously asked, "When did you find out?"

"Uhm, yesterday. I got home, and as I was putting something away I found my birth certificate."

"Sorry, Harvs, seems like we're not twins. Does explains why I'm more good looking, though." She half-joked.

He was sat to her left, silent ever since she confessed. She couldn't tell what he was thinking, but then again her gaze was on her hands that she kept fiddling with, rested on the table, in fear of looking at him. Of what she's not too sure. She felt her eyes sting a little.

He took a deep breath as she held hers, waiting to hear what he had to say, "You're my sister, Mora. I'd never consider you anything but." He put his hand on her hand and squeezed, making the girl turn her head to finally look at him.

"No matter what," He told her earnestly looking straight into her nervous misty eyes. It was all he said and he meant it.

She blinked away her tears as her shoulders relaxed and nodded. Harvey took that as a good sign, seeing she believed him. He took his hand off hers only to wrap his arm around her shoulders, bringing her in for a hug.

"Do you... know who your real parents are?" Harvey asked his first question, releasing her.

She sniffed, wiping away a few tears before answering, "Remember the assignment on our family history and I did mine on Natasha's family, Dad's brother's wife?" The group nodded, "Well, turns out, they're my mother and father."

"So, technically, you guys cousins," Elijah put together.

"Well, yay, right?" Roz interjected enthusiastically, "You guys are still blood-related."

Harvey and the others expressed their agreement and delight at the positive point.

"What happened to them? I mean, I remember you said they passed away," Susie questioned gently again, she knew it's a sensitive subject, but her curious self she couldn't help but ask, " do you know how?"

"No," she shrugged lightly.

"Maybe you should ask your Dad?" Sabrina recommended, "I'm sure he knows something."

"I don't really wanna see or speak to him. At least until I don't feel the urge to yell or throw things at him." She crossed her arms.

"Understandable," Sabrina nodded. She understood the feeling of finding out your legal guardian—your family—was keeping something big from you.

When she found out her Father had bargained with the Dark Lord and signed away her name, her _soul_ and free will in the Book of the Beast before she could even walk, or be old enough to begin forming her own opinions, she was furious. And for her Aunt Zelda to keep it from her for so long... She wanted to set things afire.

"I think you still should, though. Once you've wrapped your head around all this. Sit down with him. Show him you are gonna leave until he answers your questions. Gather as much information as you can about them. You have a right to know who they were, what happened and all that."

Mora was silent, thinking over what she had said. She knew she was right. Unfortunately, she was too much of a curious being to keep on ignoring him. She would have to eventually face him and she could already see that conversation not going well. She sighed.

Harvey could see the mental debate she was having, "But, hey, only when you're ready. It's no rush."

She nodded. "Thanks, Harv. I was kinda worried you'd see me as some sort of fraud or something. That all of you might." She shrugged a shoulder. "I don't know, it's stupid."

"Yeah actually it is, we'll always be friends, Mora. It just wouldn't be the same without our sarcastic genius friend." Roz beamed, reaching out to squeeze her hand. The others agreed.

"Totally," Sabrina seconded.

 _I really got lucky with them, hadn't I_ , Mora thought, smiling shyly.

* * * 

"Oh, Ms Kinkle, I'm so glad I ran into you. How are you feeling today? You gave me quite the scare last night."

"Right, uh, I'm so sorry about that. I hate that I was a burden to you, I wasn't thinking straight."

"Oh nonsense, you're not a burden." Ms Wardwell dismissed the ridiculous notion, "I could tell something was bothering you, other than the passing of your brother, may he rest in peace."

"Yes," she hesitated, "I- uhm..."

"Perhaps you would be more comfortable speaking in private?"

Mora paused then sighed, "Sure."

Once they were sat in Ms Wardwell's office, the words just started to flow out. About Tommy, how his death affected her, the discovery of her true parentage, how she truly felt about everything. She didn't know why she was so transparent with her, so open but she was relieved to let it all out because she felt ready to snap.

And Ms Wardwell listened, patient till the end. Giving her the freedom to her express herself, not giving her pitying looks as tears of frustration filled her eyes or anything like that. The floor was all hers, she said. Ugh, she was a God sent.

"Don't get me wrong, I am grateful that Harvey still thinks of me like family and that nothing will change between us and that I get to keep that constant in my life. But- but I just have so many questions and doubts and—" she stopped, looking for the right words. "I feel incomplete, now. Like something's missing."

"And you don't think your father might help fill in the blanks?" Mary finally questioned, but Mora scoffed at that.

"No, he'd just end the conversation right then and there." She spoke her head.

The only person that could have maybe, possibly, helped her was Tommy. But she couldn't exactly ask him.

_Had he ever known? Or had he been just as clueless as the rest of us?_

"It doesn't hurt to try. You don't strike me as the type to back down due to a little discomfort. Who knows he just might surprise you." Mora thought for a bit but she highly doubted it.

"Now, I want you to know you are always welcome at mine. This may go against ethical rules and regulations and whatnot but I must confess, you are my favourite."

"I thought Sabrina was your favourite. Heck, everyone thinks that. She always comes to you for help and seems to value your talks."

"My relation with Ms Spellman is... consequential. Simply out of fealty. I know—knew— her father. I'm simply keeping an eye on her for him." She explained leaving out certain details, and the parts where she thought the blonde was a naive, self-righteous teenager. She internally rolled her eyes.

But with Mora, she could sense the resilience in her. She's only had a glimpse of it and knew already that there was more she could give. Frankly, she saw herself in the young woman. Which is why she decided to keep tabs on her spare time when she wasn't babysitting and Sabrina per the Dark Lord's orders. She wanted to help her flourish.

That and another reason, one only she would know.

"But you, Mora, I see a lot of potentials. I see the brave, headstrong, intelligent and beautiful woman you will very soon become. Just like someone, I used to know." She uttered the last part softly though the teenager still heard it.

"That is why I would like to be more present in your life. If I'm overstepping, I apologize."

"No. No, you're alright."

"I'm glad." "Thank you, Ms Wardwell. I really appreciate your help." She said seriously.

Mary only smiles at her. The bell then rang ending their time together, "You should be getting to your next class."

Mora grabbed her bag nodding and stood up. She had the door opened when the elder woman called, "And Mora," the girl turned to face her, "Don't worry yourself too much. I have a feeling all will be revealed sooner than you think."

Mora nodded and gave her a final thankful smile, before exiting the office.

After a long day of classes, Mora finally arrived home being given a ride by Elijah.

"Hey, I know it's been tough these past few days, but I'm here for you, you know? I kinda also miss my bestie."

"I miss you, too, 'Lijah. Maybe we'll do something this weekend."

"I know just how to lift your spirits. Jason Statham marathon featuring vanilla shakes and a giant bag of pretzels."

"I swear it's like you live inside my mind." They then simultaneously brought their joint index and middle fingers of their hands, placed them on both sides of their temples and squinted at each other before bursting out of laughter.

"I'll see you later, loser." She exited his car, slinging her bag over her shoulder.

"Not if I see you first, dumbass."

Closing the car door, she made her way to her house hearing Elijah car already driving off behind her.

She still had a smile on her face when she walked in but it soon vanished when she turned. Sitting in the living room she saw her father was also home, which caused her to tense up. He opened his mouth, wanting to start up a conversation but Mora was out of that room in the blink of an eye.

Closing the door to her bedroom, she took a breath. _Not now._ _Not yet._ She was just physically, emotionally and mentally drained from all the drama.

C'mon, when the last time she had a good old fashioned nap?

And so that's what she did. _Education can wait_ , she thought as she placed her school bag on her desk and belly-flopped on her bed. Her eyes closed and her mind relaxed as she drifted off.

_Mora was real confused when she took in her surroundings. She could swear it was a dream but the freezing fog she felt, that she found herself surrounded in, wrapped around her like a blanket made her think otherwise. She couldn't see much and only guess that she was in a forest of some kind. The murk was covering the area pretty heavily, only making out bits and pieces. She held out her hand in front of her and watched it become partially obscured._

_Dropping her hand to her side, she decides to venture through the gloomy area. Now if it were a real-life, she would have been dead by now. Yelling 'Hello? Anyone there?' into the dark empty where she could barely see anything was every horror character's dumb mistake. But since it wasn't real she figured she could play dumb._

_She wondered why her subconscious would send her here, anyway. I mean, what is this all about. Clearly she really was dark and gloomy on the inside, hm, Elijah was right. She nodded to herself not really surprised and moved along._

_She was gonna just walk in a west-ish direction when something hard and felt like body bumped into her. It almost sent her to the ground but she managed to balance herself as did the other person._

_The fog started to clear up a little more when she went to apologize to the person, though she didn't know why she was since it wasn't real. Her... everything froze when she recognized who it was._

_"_ _Mora?"_

_"_ _T-Tommy?" She asked meekly._

_"_ _What are you doing here?" He asked, "What are_ we _doing here? Where are we?"_

_Mora was in a state of shock. It took her some time to get her bearings before she asked, "I-I-I don't know. My head, I guess." She swallowed. "What are you doing here?"_

_He looks around, almost lost, "I've been walking around for what feels like forever. You're the first person I've seen in this place," He explained, feeling a bit off about the situation. "Besides that... thing."_

_She saw his body shiver and his face express a look of fear at the thought of something, which made her want to ask him about it. But she decided not to due to how alarmingly pale, practically white since it was already pale, his skin was turning._

_This was her dream, right? So she thought she could just change the scenery._

_Closing her eyes she thought hard for a few moments. When her eyes opened she was stood a few ways behind the two-story house that they turned into a sort of shooting range years ago. The bright sun that shone upon the field blinded her for a second. It took a few seconds for her to adjust from the previous dark and gloomy setting._

_Looking at her dead brother, she saw him blink a few times also needing to adjust. She saw the relief on his face when he took in where they were, as it made her so happy._

_"_ _Better?"_

_"_ _Much. Thanks to your mind, I guess." He smiled at her and she breaks._

_"_ _I miss you." She attacked him with a hug and holds tight._

_"_ _Hey, now. Why are you crying? There's no need for that." He squeezes her._

_"_ _Its been really hard without you," she sniffed._

_He sighed sadly, "I'm... dead, aren't I?" He felt her nod still pressed to his chest, and sighed dejectedly again. "Shhh, it's gonna be alright."_

_"_ _No, it's not." She released him, "Ever since you've been gone everything is worse at home." She wiped her tears. "Especially between Dad and I ever since I discovered something pretty huge that I actually need to tell you about." She bit her lip and hesitated._

_Tommy, having an idea on what she was about to say, decided to save her the trouble and spoke, "I know, Mora, for years."_

_The teenager gaped, "What? For how long? Why didn't you say anything?" Despite his seemingly calm demeanor on the topic, she was still wary of what he truly thought._

_Tommy nodded to the makeshift bench that they, including Harvey, had made out of wood planks they found. He remembered how Harvey had unknowingly shifted his aim while hammering and beat down on his thumb and index that was holding one of the nail's upright. Tommy quickly rushed to his aid, assessing the damage, scolding himself for not watching him while Mora found it hilarious as Harvey cursed at her and the pain._

_They made their way over and sat down. He was honestly glad she finally knew. He hated keeping the secret but he didn't have a choice. He had been waiting to talk to her about it. He would have like for Harvey to be present too so they could speak as a family but the circumstances weren't exactly normal. He was fine with just having a one-on-one._

_"_ _Well for one, Mom and Dad told me not to when I really found out. Few years after you first came, I started to question how it was possible for Mom to come home with a baby one night, deliver another almost two months later and then have Dad say they're twins." He explained._

_Tommy always said she was the only other person he knew that picked up details like him. He's been perceptive since a young age. Mora nodded at that, "The other?"_

_He smiled softly, "The second reason was that in my little undeveloped three-year-old brain, all I thought about the moment I saw you was how I was gonna protect my new baby sister with everything I have."_

_She felt a stream of tears were falling down her face and she wiped them away but it didn't matter cause more kept falling._

_"_ _I know you, Mora, I know what you're thinking and stop. I love you, sis. So does Harvey. So do your friends. And I know you don't want to hear it, but so does Dad."_

_Mora opened her mouth to protest but he didn't let her, "He just has the wrong process of showing it. Speak to him okay, cause I can tell you haven't yet." She rolled her eyes but nodded._

_"_ _Have you ever met my real parents?"_

_"_ _Vaguely, to be honest. I remember the taste of Aunt Nat milk tart. And Uncle Eric with some new contraption he would have made for me that he brought for me. My tiny brain thought they were ingenious. He was really smart, I think you got that from you." That's all I really remember, I'm sorry. They were really nice people, though."_

_Mora looked on the open field, her mind trying to imagine the picture he painted of them._

_"_ _It's okay. That's more than helpful, at least I have an idea of how they were."_

_She was gonna say more when the scene around them started to slicker to the image of the forest they came from previously._

_"_ _No, no, I need more time. Don't wake up." Mora pleaded out loud to herself. Trying to let her mind focus on the current location they were at but it didn't work. The image kept its flutter and started to fade as well._

_"_ _It's fine." Tom tried to ease her growing panic, "I'll be okay. I just need to know you'll take care of yourself out there, all of you. I hate being the one breaking whatever peace there was left. Promise me, Mora."_

_"_ _I promise, Tommy." He wrapped an arm over her shoulder as she rested her head on his, "I love you, Mora. Never doubt that."_

A tear slid down a smooth cheek, moments before eyelids opened themselves revealing once tearful brown eyes. This time Mora didn't move to wipe them away.

* * * 

At the Kinkle residence, Harvey and his father were sat at the dinner table eating in an uncomfortable silence that they both felt.

"She's not coming down?"

Harvey glanced at him briefly and shook his head sadly. Matthew sighed but said nothing more and went back to his meal.

Not long after, heavy thumping at their front door broke once again broke the quiet. The two males looked at each other wondering who would think to come over at that late hour.

After the exchange, Harvey stood up to see what the person wanted. He got a strange feeling as he made his way to the door. The person's knocking stayed continuous, pausing for a beat before bounding again. His father was behind him, the situation also seems strange to him.

Harvey frowned before he opened the door and he froze still. His father went rigid too.

"Mora! Come down here now!" Harvey yelled after what seemed like forever, not taking his eyes away from the entrance.

Mora's light footsteps could be heard as she made herby down. She stayed in her room the majority of the time, nowadays. Because, one, she still wasn't comfortable seeing her Dad, except for the occasional greeting with the nod of her head.

And two, her mind was still reeling on the dream she had of her dead brother a few nights ago. "Urgh, what's so important that I had to leave the comfort of my warm—"

She didn't finish her sentence as her mind was trying to catch up with what her eyes were seeing in front of her.

The three Kinkle members had their jaws practically touching the ground as they stared at the fourth member they thought to be gone from their lives.

"Tommy?"

This week just wasn't for the Kinkles.


	9. Chapter NINE

**_A few days earlier_ **

There wasn't many people at Baxtor High, both student and faculty, who were not still thinking about the tragedy that occurred at the mines. The tense atmosphere could be felt when one would walk in the hallways or when they were sat down in literature class that week.

The ones who were most worried were Harvey and Mora's friends. They were constantly worried about their grieving friends and it only enhanced when they were not seen at school and hadn't mentioned anything to them.

They decided though to not hover and be overbearing. They thought it best to leave them for a bit, let them have their space to grieve.

Sabrina had been placing her books in her locker, a worried frown on her face as she was thinking about her boyfriend when Roz came up to her.

"'Brina."

"Hi, Roz," she paused, she could see that the girl was uneasy, but about what she didn't know. "You alright?"

She took a breath, "Okay, this is gonna sound weird. Like, really, really weird."

"What is?"

"Okay, I'm just gonna say it. You remember when Tommy's casket fell over? When you went after Harvey, I picked up Tommy's hard hat. And while I was holding it... I had... It was..."

Sabrina looked at her friend a bit confused but waited patiently for her to continue. "Well, it was like a vision." Now, this really confused Sabrina.

"A flash. And I know how that sounds but on second, I was at the funeral and the next I was in the mines. I saw these two creepy girls. And they were wearing old-fashioned dresses with lace collars-"

 _Those freaking sisters_ , Sabrina thought her blood boiling, "Just two girls? Not three?"

"Just two. And they were playing with dolls. Weird, right?"

"Yeah, definitely weird." She copied, with as little venom she could possibly muster.

How could she have not guessed that witchcraft could have been involved? More specifically how could she have not guessed that those conniving succabitches were involved?

For the time being she was gonna have to put aside the surprising discovery of her best friend having some type of clairvoyant powers and more on the murdering snakes she unfortunately knew.

All Roz was thinking about was how she hoped she hadn't freaked out her best friend.

"Okay, Roz, I'm gonna need you to describe these two girls to me in as much detail you could possibly remember."

.

" _Hic ante circulum appareatis prudentiae, Prudence. In pulchra figura humana, et tortua sitate aliqua."_

"Well that's enough Sabrina," a clearly unwilling Prudence said as she appeared behind the blonde witch. "You've summoned me. I'm here. What do you want?"

"Revenge."

"I can get behind that. On who?"

"Your venomous sisters went after my boyfriend and his brother."

Prudence smirk was quick to disappear as she glared at the girl before her. "How dare you speak of my sisters in that way?" She sneered to the self-righteous half-breed.

"Harvey's alive but Tommy's dead." Sabrina ignored her. "And so are four other mortals. That's five innocent lives lost for Dorcas' and Agatha's amusement."

Truth be told Prudence knew. She had her suspicious but pushed them away, filling her mind with the notions that her sisters wouldn't do such things behind her back.

"What do you want, Sabrina?" She asked again.

"I want Tommy back."

She waited for the foolish girl to tell her she was kidding, but she looked dead serious.

"Besides, you owe me from when I saved you from Lady Blackwood."

This little brat, Prudence thought bitterly. She laced her fingers together in front of herself and gave Sabrina a tight-lipped smile, not saying anything.

"And I've got a plan."

.

"Agatha! Dorcas!" Sabrina called once she and Prudence made their way towards them in the grand hall at the Academy.

"What's wrong, Sabrina? Hi, Prudence."

"Admit the truth, right now. Did you cause the mine collapse that killed Tommy Kinkle?" She demanded.

"You think we carried out blood atonement? Against an avowed witch hunter?" Agatha asked sarcastically.

"For the murder of a familiar?" Dorcas added.

Crossing her arms, Agatha finished, "Guess anything is possible. Blood will have blood."

"You see? They admit it."

"Is that what you were plotting sisters? When you were claiming to be thanking the Dark Lord for my salvation?"

Prudence would never tell anyone this but Dorcas and Agatha were the only family she had since for as long as she could remember. To have them admit to this treachery hurt her deeply. They were liars and manipulators and most likely evil but never to each other. They always stuck together.

"You'd gone soft, Prudence."

"Something had to be done." They taunted her and oh, were they gonna regret it.

Sabrina spoke, "Since there was nothing natural about Tommy's death, then one of you bitches is gonna help me balance the scales. A life for a life. So, who's it gonna be?"

All the two could do was laugh at her pathetic attempt of intimidation, "You don't have the guts to kill anyone."

"She may not." Prudence walked up to their faces, "But I do."

Now she did manage to bring a great amount of fear into them. "How dare you act without my permission?"

"Now which one of you was the mastermind? Or would you rather burn together?"

Neither Dorcas nor Agatha said anything... Up until Dorcas when cracked under the pressure of Prudence's deadly glares that could have possibly rivalled against the Dark Lord's wrath.

"It was Agatha. It was all her idea, I didn't even wanna do it."

"Is that true?"

Seeing she had already been ratted out anyway, Agatha replied, "I'm just sorry the other Kinkle boy didn't die, too. Along with their bitch sister."

Next thing she knew, she gasped as Sabrina had struck her across the face. "Bring them to the woods tonight, Prudence. Agatha will pay the debt she owes."

"Murder and resurrection Sabrina? You've gone dark." Prudence smirked.

"There are no limits to what I would do to help the people I love."

"What time? Can I watch?" the infamous Nick Scratch made his appearance, making the girls looked over to the newcomer.

"You're talking necromancy, right? Well, there's no way I'm gonna miss that so, what time? What woods?"

_"Midnight. In the clearing by the creek bed." She informed, not once breaking her stare away from Agatha._

"Prudence, I'm your sister," the raven head girl tried when she realized they were entirely serious.

"Not tonight you aren't." That response had surprised the other two.

_._

The ritual had, so far, gone without a hitch. They went through everything by the book, literally. The Book of the Dead was a grimoire filled with some seriously dark spells that witches wouldn't dare attempt since that type of magic usually came with drastic repercussions.

Now apparently Sabrina would dare. Either way, they went through the three stages; they invoked the hounds, opened the door to the other side and the price, Agatha's sacrifice, was paid in blood.

After waiting thirteen minutes, the time need for a witch's soul to leave its host, they were to now bury Agatha's corpse.

Now no matter how stoic her face was, Prudence was a mess on the inside. Having to carry her sister's limp body to the open grave dug in the Spellman's cemetery was tremendously hard. She looked at Dorcas and saw tears were still streaming down her face and she was trembling so much she was starting to worry. But she didn't make a sound, not wanting to be on the already bad side of Prudence.

The girl wanted to comfort her but held herself back. She had to hold on for just a little bit longer. There was a plan and Satan help her, she was putting all her trust in Sabrina right now.

Sabrina the instructed, "Cover her all the way up."

"Why are we burying her here? W-why not just leave her in the woods?"

The three just looked at each other in silent communication. "Shut up and dig," was all Prudence ordered, as they got to it.

"Sabrina!" the girl slowly turned to see the furious look on her cousin's face as he stormed his way to her.

"Oh, crap." She whispered.

"Necromancy, Sabrina? This is the most stupid, the most irresponsible thing you have ever done," Ambrose Spellman, was usually the calm, easy-going, member of the family but tonight he was livid.

"What would give you the idea to do something like this in the first place? The Monkey's Paw, for Lucifer's sake?"

"Harvey was broken, Ambrose. I still haven't seen Mora shed a single tear and we all know she's bottling up her feelings to be there for Harvey." She argued "I had to do something. Anything."

"Yes, yes, you've mucked about with the most potent, wicked forces that exist." He tried to stress then lowered his voice, "Much more powerful than the Dark Lord. I'm talking about death, cousin."

"I followed the ritual to the letter."

"Then **what** are you and your friends doing in our Cain Pit?" He fumed.

"The rite demanded that someone be killed so that Tommy would come back. Agatha was that someone. But the ritual didn't mention anything about the murdered sacrifice having to stay dead." She explained to her cousin who crouched down, wanting to show him that her loophole could work.

Oh, dear-- she was testing his patience. "Why must you always insist that the universe grant you special privileges?" He seethed, rather candidly. "You've upset the natural order. You do realize that, don't you? That there are rules. There is no cheating fate."

Sabrina shook her head, "What's the point of being a witch if I can't help the ones I love?"

"You've crossed a line this time. No, no... No, you've completely erased it."

"There's no reason to think that the spell will fail." She said calmly. Ambrose just looked at his dear cousin trying to think of ways to get her to understand the grim ramifications that the cosmos could send her way. Before he could say anything, thumping sounds were heard and they both turned to face the cemetery.

It's been twenty-odd minutes since they patted down Agatha's unmarked grave and a hand shot out from the ground and out she came crawling.

Upon seeing this Sabrina sighed in relief. She had been terrified that all this had been for nothing and that she had made a grave mistake. But this was a good sign, great in fact. She smiled at Ambrose, "And that would be Agatha. Right on schedule. See? Everything's going according to plan."

Ambrose scoffed as he brought a hand to his mouth and step closer to where she was sitting. He placed both arms beside her and said, "Infamous last words, cousin." And walked off.

Sabrina shouted after him, "Thirteen hours, Ambrose. You'll see. Tommy will be back. You'll see," But she wasn't trying to convince, she was trying to convince herself.

"Everything will be okay in thirteen hours," she muttered to herself once more.

Over at the gravesite, Nick was hella surprised the ritual he'd apart of worked, Dorcas was almost shitting herself trying to figure what was happening and Prudence was relieved and just happy she didn't need to kill another witch that night, had the blonde's plan gone south.

Stepping forward in front of a still heaving Agatha, as she was throwing up a dirty black goo substance, "Welcome back, sister."

Agatha retches and inhaled deeply. She was confused and scared out of her mind. "Where am I? Where was I?"

"So you didn't kill her?" Dorcas asked, crying.

"We did, but only because Sabrina had a plan to bring Agatha back." She turned to the girl on the ground. "You, Sister Agatha, were dead. For thirteen minutes. Now you're back."

She took another step forward to the shaking revenant girl, "Actions have consequences. By killing those mortals so helter-skelter, you risked expose us." The girl was crying and bowed her head. "Imagine if my father found out. You'd still be in the ground right now."

She bent forward "So, I'll thank you...to never take such action without my explicit permission again."

_* * *_

Thirteen painstakingly slow hours later, Sabrina was walking home feeling dejected. She made her way up the porch only stop when a whistling Ambrose ceases his afternoon shore and asked her, "Oh sweet hell, What happened with Tommy?"

"Nothing happened, Ambrose. Its been over thirteen hours and it didn't work." She informed, leaning on the railing.

Ambrose chuckled as he went back to polishing his shoes, "Consider it a blessing."

Sabrina just looked at him, trying to figure out what went wrong. "I went back to the woods and the effigy was just lying there."

"What do you mean 'back to the woods'?" he asked absentmindedly, "No the soul returns to the body... wherever that is." He stops his brushing and looked at the young girl.

"What? But the rite didn't say--"

He sighed heavily, jumping off where he sat, "You're playing with life and death and you don't even know the basics, cousin!"

_"Oh, my gosh. He's at mines."_

He was, but not anymore. When she had arrived, fog had covered the entire ground reaching to her ankles. She made her way to the entrance panting and there was a huge a gaping hole, where it used to be boarded with wooden planks to keep anyone from passing through.

He's alive, but now the question was where was he?

_._

That was answered when she arrived at the Kinkle household. Apparently, he immediately made his way home. After the initial shock wore off, his family ushered him inside and Mr Kinkle instantly when to call the Dr Phibes. Once he was finished with his examinations, he concluded that Tommy was simply still in shock, PTSD most likely. That would probably explain why he hasn't spoken yet or wasn't eating.

Sabrina was happy and relieved, of course, but the worry grew when she heard of his behaviour, but hadn't mentioned anything, not wanting to ruin Harvey and Mora's excitement.

They had been through enough already. They deserved a moment of peace. So, she did what she always does when she's convinced she'd done the right things but later has negative outcomes, she ignores it.

It was very early in the morning when Mora woke up to get herself a glass of water. She reached the bottom of the stairs when she heard a very faint squeaking sound.

"Tommy?"

She entered the living room and flipped on the light switch. There her newly resurrected brother stood in front of a mirror, blankly staring into himself while scratching on the glass.

Mora was worried about him. "Tommy? Hey. You okay?" He just continued scratching.

"Hey." She gently pulled him away from the mirror and sat him down on the couch and looked at him as he blankly stared ahead.

"What do you think of looking through some pictures?" she tried. "Doc Phibes said that might help."

She reached for an album that was on the table and opened it up. "Look um... That was the day Mom and Dad took us to the carnival." She pointed at a picture where all five of them were huddled together. Harvey and Mora's face was covered in ice cream, Dad was holding a box of popcorn smiling at the camera, their mother was trying to wipe Mora's messy chubby two-year-old cheeks and Tommy was eating his cotton candy looking amused at the situation.

Mora smiled fondly. She didn't remember much but she knew she was happy that day, that she had a lot of fun.

Her smile dropped slightly as a thought came to mind.

"Listen I don't know what happened in those mines while you were stuck... and I hate bringing up your time there... I know it must have been terrifying..." she paused, "But do you remember having a dream about me and you? We were at our shooting range and we were talking... about a secret? About me."

She looked up, waiting for him to speak. "Guess it was probably just my delusional brain that made it up. Or maybe... maybe it was real, I-I don't know. " she sighed.

"Basically, I wanna thank you for what you said. I think I need it. And I'm glad you protected me as your sister. Now we're gonna take care of you, okay. And in no time you'll be back to your old self. Because I love you, too, bro. We all do."

She was still watching him, wanting to see any slight change, to see if he would respond in any way, but nada. He kept his gaze on the wall in front of them. She wouldn't give up though. He'd come back, he just needed some time.

She wiped under her eye and cleared her throat. She flipped through to the next page where it was photos of him. That seemed to trigger something cause in the corner of her eye she saw him turn his head slowly. She looked to him slowly bring his finger up to point at the picture of him in his football uniform.

"Yeah, that's you. You were an All-Star, dude. MVP, three years straight." She reminded him. But stopped when she saw he started to scratch the photo, the same way she saw him doing to the mirror.

She frowned slightly, her worry for her brother grew.

Mora and her Dad arrived home to find Sabrina and Roz sitting at the dining table with Tommy.

"What's going here? Where's Harvey?" he said removing his jacket.

"The kitchen, Mr. Kinkle, we just came by to check in on Harvey and Tommy. Hey, Mora." Sabrina replied scowling at the older man. She hadn't forgotten what happened on the day of the funeral.

"Hey Sabrina, Roz." She greeted, placing the grocery bags she was holding on the ground.

Harvey came through the kitchen door a moment later.

"Dad, they were helping," he tried to explain.

"Like they know more than Doc Phibes?"

"I think anyone knows more than Doc Phibes." Mora muttered as she leaned against the entrance frame.

Roz and Sabrina could sense they weren't welcome so they stood up to leave, they got what they needed anyway.

"We'll talk to you later, guys."

"Yeah, okay." Harvey sighed.

"Bye," Mora said smiling apologetically to the girls, as they passed her. Once the door closed, she spoke, "Why do you have to be so mean? All they were trying to do was help. I mean we could use a second opinion right about now."

"A second opinion about what?"

"What do you think? Have you not been paying attention? Tommy's hasn't eaten a thing yet he also hasn't lost a pound of weight. He stares directly into the sun during the day for hours without blinking. He doesn't sleep, he doesn't speak. I-I know he went through something none of us will understand and everyone reacts to trauma differently but... but this... It's different. Something's wrong." She stressed, "I can't be the only one who feels it."

For the first time, Matt hadn't argued back. He knew it something was wrong with his boy but he believed he'd get better. He got his son back, he wasn't gonna lose him again to anything.

"He'll be fine." He looked at her then turned his eyes on Tommy, whose expression hadn't moved an inch. "He'll be fine." He whispered, again, then made his way upstairs. Mora sighed, crestfallen as he left and Harvey just looked at his shoes.

"I'll get started on dinner," she said patting Tommy on his shoulder as she passed him. Harvey grabbed the groceries and followed.

* * *

"Prudence, Dorcas, heed me. The returned boy is a soulless husk. Every moment he draws air, he risks exposing the Church of Night and our magics. Despite Zelda's promise the Spellman's are too recalcitrant to be trusted with bringing this situation to a satisfactory conclusion." Fautus Blackwood expressed, "But you, girls, had a hand in his reanimation. You will put an end to Thomas Kinkle." He ordered finally. "And be quick about it."

With that, two thirds of the Weird Sisters were off to the Kinkle home. "Perhaps I'll tear out his heart, give it Agatha after all the trouble he's put her through? Or we could place his head on a spike."

"You heard what my father said, Dorcas. Let's just get this done." Prudence felt a pit in her stomach the closer they walked to the house.

She's usually all for murder, but it didn't sit well with her that it was going to affect this particular family. She put on a straight face though. This was for her sister, she'd do anything for her.

What they didn't know was Nick had overheard their conversation with Blackwood and had followed them. Suddenly, the two girl felt agonizing pain on their feet as they couldn't move. They looked down, screaming. Blood was pouring out from their feet soaking their shoes and the ground.

"What's happening? What is happening?" Dorcas cried in pain.

"I don't know." Prudence said as they wailed.

"My apologies, ladies."

"Nicholas! What have you done to us?" Prudence turned to see him behind them.

"It's an old catching spell. Drive a spike through a witch's footprint and she'll be rooted to the spot until you pull up the spike." The warlock explained.

"Why are you doing this? My father gave us orders."

"The Spellman's are handling this, Prudence. And you, Dorcas and I are staying right here until their finished."

_._

But some luck, no one inside the house heard the screams.

Sabrina had sat her friends in the dining room table. She had to come clean. She crewed up trying to retrieve Tommy's soul from limbo. Now she had to tell her friends that their brother would never be the same again.

The blonde couldn't stand the silence, so she asked, "Where's your dad?"

"Off getting wasted, most probably," Mora answered.

"How's Tommy?

"Same. Still sleeping."

Sabrina nods, "Harvey. Mora, I have something to tell you. Something I can't hide from you anymore."

He leaned forward, "What is it? I'm ready for just about ready anything at this point."

 _Okay, just... rip the bandaid off_ , "Tommy's asleep because I gave him a few drops of sleeping potion."

"What do you mean potion?"

"It was mixed in with the water I brought with me. And... the reason Tommy came back..." Harvey could only blink, "was because... I...performed a ritual to bring him back."

"Sabrina, what are you talking about?"

She hesitated, "I'm a witch, Harvey." The old man clock was all that was heard.

"What?" Mora stammered.

Harvey looked at the table silently thinking, "You've...you've told me this before."

"Just before my 16th birthday. But then... I made you forget... with a spell." Tears were now forming in her eyes.

"How can I believe you? How can I—How can we believe this?"

"When you were eight, you saw a demon in the mines. You knew Jesse Putnam was possessed before anyone else did. You come from a family of witch hunters." She turned to his sister, "So do you, Mora. But you also come from a line of powerful witches. That report you did on your mother's family—your biological mother—it's... it's true, with the exception of some details that were left out."

"I am not a witch." The brunette glared at what she was insinuating.

"And I don't think you are, either. My best guess is that the gene somehow skipped you," she then muttered to herself, "If that's even possible." She spoke again, "Or it's possibly just dormant."

"Sabrina. Stop talking," Mora rested her elbows on the table as she gripped her hair, trying to think. Sabrina saw that she was hurting them and she wanted to stop hurting them, but they had to know everything.

"Your brother..."

"What? What about Tommy?" Harvey demanded.

"That's not really him," the tears had escaped and were rolling down her face, "in Tommy's room, in Tommy's bed."

"Of course it is."

"No. No, I... performed resurrection spell to help Tommy and Mora and you, too. Because I knew you would do the same for me. But it all went wrong. I brought back Tommy's body but not his soul... not the part of him that's really Tommy."

"What are you taking about?! That is Tommy!"

"No, Harvey... it's not. You both know it's not."

"If that's not Tommy then who—what is it?" Mora finally spoke, her voice cracking.

Sabrina's voiced trembled as she answered, "Something else. Something I need... to put back in the ground before things get worse."

"Why, did you--"

"I wanted to fix this for you." She explained, "I wanted you to stop hurting."

"You shouldn't have done anything. You should've left Tommy where he was."

"That's why I need to make things right. That's why I need to put what's in Tommy's room... back."

"Oh, my gosh. Nothing you can do will make this right, Sabrina." Mora glared. "You're asking us to bury our brother for the second time." Harvey's head twisted so fast to look at her, appalled, then back to Sabrina, "Do you understand you're asking of us?"

"I-I'm so sorry, Mora." She sniffed, "But it's the only way."

"How are you gonna do it?"

"I- I – I don't even know."

"I'll do it."

"No! No, Harvey, you don't—you—you shouldn't—"

"He's my brother, Sabrina, and I don't want you to be person who did that to any part of Tommy." Mora was quiet.

She sobs, "Im sorry. I'm so sorry."

"You—you have to go."

"Why? I don't want to."

Mora scoffed, "I think there's been enough damage because of the things you've wanted."

"I need to do this before my dad gets back.... Before I chicken out. And I... I can't talk to you again, for a while."

"Harvey... Harvey, please, let me stay, let me at least help."

"Sabrina, you've- you've done enough."

She just possibly ruined the lives of two of the best people she'd ever met. She couldn't blame them for a single moment if they hated her. She brought this upon herself.

She wiped her eyes, grabbed her jumper and left the house.

As soon as the door closed, Harvey let out a shaky breath. "Are you sure you wanna do it?" Mora whispered in the silence.

"No. But I have to."

She looked at her brother and he was shaking. "How?" He just kept silent. And frankly, she didn't wanna know. "I'm uh, I'm gonna wait outside."

She stood up and walked out the front door.

The cold evening air blew across her face, and she took a deep breath. She couldn't believe this was happening. She was losing her brother for the second time. She couldn't breathe.

She sat down on the porch stairs and waited.

A gunshot went off.

She flinched and closed her eyes.

Once freed from Nick's entrapment, Prudence turned to face the two, "My father will most likely need confirmation that it's done. You need to check on Agatha, I'll be with you as soon as I'm done here."

Dorcas nodded, then she and Nick teleported back to the academy.

She turned to look at the girl that was sat on her porch silently crying. With her feet still in excruciating pain, she slowly made her way to her.

Mora moved her head to see who had approached her and saw it to be Prudence. "You really do appear at the worse possible moments." She looked down, "Oh, my God, what happened to your feet?"

"Never mind that," She took a tender step and sat down beside the brunette. "Are you alright?" she asked carefully.

And the warm concern was all it took for Mora Kinkle to break down. "I-He's—," she couldn't get the words out.

Without thinking she dropped head onto Prudence's chest, taking the girl by surprise and sobbed. After getting over her initial shock, Prudence slowly, and rather awkwardly, wrapped her arms around the girl. She didn't know what to say to her, so she didn't say anything. She just held her. 


	10. Chapter TEN

_It was nice and warm in the cottage that evening. The atmosphere was tranquil as Mary Wardwell stared at her ticking clock._

_"Why, look at the time. It's almost midnight. Very nearly the witching hour. Time enough for one more story about Sabrina, as she takes one more step into fulfilling the Dark Lord's prophecy. And Mora, one more step closer to getting to know her true heritage." She said at ease, as she sipped her wine._

_"It's a wonder anyone in Greendale was surprised by what happened the night of the storm."_

_"All the signs were there," she told her house guest wistfully, reminiscing on that glorious night, before locking on their eyes, "if you knew where to look."_

_"A dead bird brought in by a cat; a spilt bottle of black ink; a broken mirror in an empty room; a loaf of bread split clean down the middle; a blind woman knitting her own death shroud aware of what's coming."_

_._

Mora was in the garage, the hood of a green 1976 C-20 Chevy pickup truck propped open, a toolbox beside the front wheel and legs sticking out from under the vehicle. That's how Matt found her.

He cleared his throat, and before he chickens out, kicked her gently on the leg meaning for her to come out.

She sighed, "Dude, seriously. I'm good with either/or." Sliding out from under with the backboard, she saw it was in fact her dad and not Elijah with snacks. "Oh. You're back."

"Yeah, I am." He said. She said nothing and got up. She took a distributor that she had placed on the table early and went back to the engine bay.

"What are you doing with this old thing?" He asked her.

She froze for about a millisecond before answering as she places the distributor in the engine point, "Tommy and I would work on whenever we could, getting it ready for my 16th. Said he'd give it to me. And since he's not here—again—figured I'd fixed as much as I could. Distract myself for a bit."

She grabbed a screwdriver and started twisting on the first screw, "And if you're to forbid from taking it, try again next year—"

"No, no. He wanted you to have it. I'm not here to fight."

She looked up at him for a moment, "That's a first." He chuckled for a bit.

"Tell me about it." He looked at her as she was focused on the car. Eyebrows furrowed, a piece of her dark hair falling to the sides of her face but the bandanna she had on prevented it from falling in front of her, obstructing her view.

"You look so much like her," he said softly.

"Like who?" she asked not fully paying attention.

"Your Mother."

The air went still. Her hands stopped moving as her mind rewinds the last five seconds.

She managed a "What?"

"Natasha would, uh, get this look when she'd be concentrated on something. You have that same look. You have her smile, too. That was one of the many things your father loved about her. That and her pastries. Oh, she would make the most heavenly tasting coconut cream pies. A-and I know you don't like coconut but you'd love hers." He assured her.

"Sophie's baking was terrible, though. God, she'd murder me if she heard me say that." He told her, chuckling softly.

"What are you doing?" he heard a voice say so softly, he almost missed it. Mora had long since abandoned the truck and was staring at him with tearful eyes.

He swallowed thickly. He's seen her on the brink of tears more times this month that he has her whole life.

"I've been a pretty much shitty parent to you since your mo—Sophie died. I figured you'd like to hear the story of those who would have taken better care of you, had they had the chance to be here. Your call."

Matt wasn't one for tears, he learnt that the hard way from his Pops, but this was an exception. It was freakin' agonizing talking about the people he loved and lost. But at the same time, he thinks he needs to do this. For the young girl, he promised his baby brother he'd take care of, and for himself.

Mora took a shaky breath in, "Yeah," she cleared her throat, "Yeah, that's—we can do that." She exhaled.

"Good. Good." He took a wrench and stepped forward engine and started, "You know this is somewhat how they met. Eric had was driving and had seen someone on the side of the road, hailing. When he got out and got a better look at who it was, there she was. God he wouldn't shut up about how angelic she looked like 'the ray of the sun shone down on her'."

He laughed lightly, "He was a romantic." He glanced at her, "Fuckin' musicians."

That got a snort out of her. This was weird, but she'd roll with it. "What'd she think?" she asked and went to work on the car, too.

"Apparently she was just hoping she didn't get the attention of some creep. Had her pepper spray ready."

"Cautious woman," she approved. He chuckled, "Yeah. Anyway, her car had a breakdown and he fixed it up. Thanks to me since I taught him everything about mechanics when we were kids. Wasn't long after that day that he got the courage to ask her out."

_._

_"I can't tell you how disappointed I was to hear Mora reconcile with her imbecilic father. Or to hear Sabrina's mortal friends rally around her. Despite my every manipulation, despite everything Mora had been through, despite everything they'd learned about Sabrina, her friends would not be cleaved from her. The Dark Lord was growing impatient with me. I needed to change tactics," she went to grab her glass of wine that sat on the table near her, "Introduce a threat to Greendale that would compel Sabrina to make certain choices that would in turn... force her to separate from her mortal anchors. As for the threat, I... had an idea or two... or thirteen. Buried right under our noses." She looked at the open fireside and watched as the wood crackled, surrendering to the flames._

_"But I would have to wait till midnight, the witching hour. And I would need a warm body."_

_._

"Brothers and Sisters. Last night I witnessed an omen. As so many of you did. A horrifying sign that can portend only one thing: the Fire of Abyss are being made ready. The Pit is yawning beneath us. The Dark Lord has seen our contemptible weakness. Our blatant disregard for witch law and doctrine. And Satan, vengeful god that he is, plans to punish us!"

The doors of the church burst wide open as Ambrose comes barreling in with Luke, his boyfriend, right behind, "Father Blackwood!"

The crowd murmured at the sudden interruption, "It is not the Dark Lord's wrath that has come for us, it is... the Greendale Thirteen."

"We stumbled upon them in the woods last night. They were performing some kind of ritual. A summoning spell."

"The bore into our minds. Bewitched us. We are only alive because they wanted us to deliver a message." He informed, still breathless.

"What message? Spit it out." The High Priest demanded.

"They've returned to visit Death upon the town of Greendale. Last night, they rose to call forth the Crimson Avenger." He turned to face crowd, "Tonight, on the witching hour, he rides!"

"Who rides, Ambrose? What are you talking about?"

"The Red Angel of Death, Auntie." He lifts his shaking arm up high so everyone may see a toy figurine of a soldier mounted on a white horse.

"The Thirteen will knock down all the doors in town for him, and in his wake, the firstborns of Greendale, both mortal and witch alike, will perish!"

The coven became rowdy and anxious as their lives were threatened. "Silence! Silence!" Faustus ordered.

"You've done well to bring this to us, Brother Ambrose," he said as the crowd settled, "but if it is the wrath of the Thirteen and their messenger of Crimson Death we face, I, your High Priest, will protect you."

"Uh, sor—with all due respect, Your Excellency, and acknowledging that I am excommunicated, protect us how?" Auntie Hilda questioned politely.

Fautus' plan was for the coven to gather within the walls of the academy and merge their powers to perform a protection spell around the facility. Now, it was great that the witches were safe and had a plan but Sabrina was clearly not fine with the fact that they'd leave the mortals, the other people of Greendale to their doom.

She wouldn't have it. And unexpectedly, neither would Zelda. So with Hilda's idea to gather all the people in the Baxter High basement, the Spellmans created a tornado so as the mortals would heed the warning and seek shelter.

.

_"And for the most part, they did. The mortals of Greendale gathered to take refuge in the bowels of Baxter High._

_._

"All right. All right. Easy does it. Nice and slow. That's it there's plenty of room for all in the storm shelter. Don't you find this invigorating, Ms. Wardwell?"

Mary had just about had it with Hawthorne. "I've always been fascinated by tornadoes myself, ever since the _Wizard of Oz_." he told her, though it wasn't as interesting of a fact as he though. Actually, she wanted to rip his tongue out to get him to stop talking.

"And now here we are, our school the only safe place in Greendale." He brushed his face in her hair, "I'm engorged with excitement."

"Mr. Hawthorne—"

He doesn't let her finish, "Perhaps when all this is over, you and I might finally have that drink?"

She slowly turns to face with a deadly look that he simply didn't register and she walked away. Not before the creep got a sniff of her.

"Sabrina, where have you been?" Zelda called out as she sees her niece running down the halls towards them, "The mortals are down in the shelter, and it's almost the witching hour."

"Roz wasn't here, so Elijah and Susie went to check on her. I went to Harvey's, and then I had to make a detour to call in a favour."

"A favour? Of whom?"

There was a knocking at the door. Harvey told his sister he'd check it and for her to stay put. Vengeful witches wouldn't knock, right?

He opened the door, "Hey, Harvey, right?"

"Yeah, who are you?"

"I'm Nick Scratch. Sabrina sent me. I'm a friend of hers and your backup for the night." He just walked past him into the house, not exactly waiting for an invitation.

Mora came from the around the corner, "Woah, who's this guy?"

"Nick. And you must be Mora." He smirked, "Nice to meet you."

"How the hell do you know my name?" she crossed her arms and he just smiled.

_"Nicky," the dark-skinned girl pulled him to a secluded corner so no one could hear them, "I need to ask a favour of you."_

_"Well today's a busy day, isn't it?" He said since not long ago Sabrina had asked for one, too._

_"Shut up and listen. I don't do this for anyone. And if you help I... will be indebted to you."_

_He furrowed his brows in surprise as this had to be serious if Prudence was willing to offer that type of price on the table. He nodded._

_"All right, what do you need?"_

"Wait, you're both witches?" _Makes sense now, though_.

"Hmm. Congratulations looks like you've got a guardian she-devil. Though I am confused as to why she sent me to protect you if you're a witch." He spoke will checking for weak points in the house.

"I'm not a witch."

He snorted, "With the energy, you're giving off, I'd beg to differ. Alright, I'll need you to show me every window and door in this house. So I can seal and bind them for you."

He walks off, wanting to get started.

"What kind of friend?" Harvey asked, following him and Mora rolled her eyes.

*** * ***

Five seconds till midnight and the three teens were stood in front of the main door.

As the dead witches performed their spells to open the door, the warlock was performing a spell of his own.

Harvey and Mora cocked their guns and aimed it at the door as it rattled, "You gonna do something here?"

"Harvey, he clearly is."

"Exactly, farm boy. Not that you deserve it, you're a witch hunter, aren't you?"

"Hey! Quit it and concentrate."

He rolled his eyes and muttered, "And yet she still loves you." He went back to the protection spell.

*

About thirty minutes have past the witching hour and Mora could see that Nick was drained. Which was suckish timing since a large shadow was looming in front of the door.

"Dear God, what is that?" Harvey muttered.

"Not God, that's for sure," Mora answered.

The door rattled even harder. "Shit, Nick, you good?" Mora asked really worried at this point. And his response didn't make it any better, "He's too strong, I don't know if I can hold it." His forehead was dripping with sweat. Harvey was scared he might collapse.

She wasn't thinking, only acted, when she put down her gun and positioned herself next to the warlock, mimicking his pose.

Harvey looked at his sister confused, "Mora what are you doing?" Nick, too, looked at her strangely but didn't stop the incantation.

"Everyone is claiming I'm a witch, well, let's find out." She took a breath, " _Qui affect protego, mixtisque iubas serpentibus et posteris meis stirpiqu."_ She looked at Nick as if to ask if she was doing it right, and he was surprised that she was doing perfectly. Harvey wasn't all that surprised, she picked up things quick.

She closed her eyes as she chants it over and over, " _Qui affect protego, mixtisque iubas serpentibus et posteris meis stirpiqu."_

She didn't know what it was but she felt a prickling warm sensation run through her body the more she went on. She had felt something similar to this the night of Sabrina's birthday. But this time it felt more present, more tangible. It was exhilarating.

.

" _In the end, there was only one way to accomplish what the Dark Lord wanted. Make so that Sabrina would have no other option. There would only be one path to save the mortals. The Path of Night. And so we went back to the clearing in the woods, where this story first began 16 years ago."_

_._

Sabrina Spellman has signed her name. It was a necessary sacrifice, she tells herself. But she couldn't dwell on it for long. She and Ms. Wardwell had made their way to the Hanging Tree where the Thirteen were killed, and with Wardwell's guidance, she managed to summon them.

"Who are you to order us?" the spirit demanded. "We felt the wrath of Greendale once, child. We won't be hung again."

"Not hung. Burned."

If she could the witch would be laughing hysterically, "Burn us half-witch? We are not of this earth. No earthly fire can burn us."

"No. Not earthly fire. Hellfire."

"None but the most powerful can summon it: Devils. In the history of witches, only three—"

"Well, it's about to be four." She yelled. "I, Sabrina Spellman, daughter of Edward Spellman, Child of Night, call forth Fire from the Pit!" Flames ignited on the ghost's hand and started to spread around her arm.

" _Ater ignis, fusce fume. Te evoco ut potentium tuam monstres."_

At that same moment, Harvey and Nick were staring wide-eyed as Mora was unknowingly chanting the same exact spell as Sabrina.

_"--Cupidibus flammis hic veni. Caelo sub isto, harc arborem consume. Lucem tenebrasque tuas monstra. Impetuum tuum evoco ad devorandum. Hanc arborem ac omnes hospitas devora."_

Harvey was terrified. One minute they were holding their back to the door, trying to keep the angry dead witches out, the next she stood up almost robotically and started a new incantation.

Nick didn't have any answers for Harvey, because he too was at a loss. But he recognized some of the words. If he was correct, she was summoning Hellfire.

By the end of the spell, a streak of her hair changed from her natural dark to a stark white colour. Her breathe hitched as she looked around, seeming to be brought out of her daze.

"Harvey?" was all she could manage before her eyes rolled to the back of her head and fell to the ground.

.

"And then they went up in hell flame. A gorgeous, searing inferno consumed their souls. Releasing their anger until their charred bodies fell from the sky... like ash."

"And once the witches who summoned the Red Death were gone, and the wrath that fuelled him dissipated, the angel, too, simply vanished. As though he was never there. And just like that, the witching hour was over. And most everyone had survived the storm, little knowing how close to annihilation they'd come."

She stood up and slowly started walking to the other chair, "And that as they say... was that. All things according to his plan. Though I never really get the credit I deserve. The best and worse things happen in the shadows. Well, this is a very long-winded way of telling you that I'm an amazing teacher, Principle Hawthorne."

"No one but me could've gotten Sabrina so far along the Path of Night." Her guest, covered in sweat and tied with a rope, whimpered when she pulled off the cloth covering his mouth.

"Who the hell are you, lady?"

"Who am I?" she turned and looked at as if the answer were simply. But she decides to have fun. "Well, I'm not Mary Wardwell though I do enjoy her body. I'm the Mother of Demons, the Dawn of Doom, Satan's concubine. I'm Lilith, dear boy. First wife to Adam, saved from despair by a fallen angel. I call myself Madam Satan, in his honour."

Hawthorne was crying when she stepped forward, "But soon... very soon... I'll have a new title. You see, once I finish grooming Sabrina to take my place as Satan's foot soldier, I'll earn a crown and a thrown by his side. Who am I?"

She huffed and pealed her skin from the top of her forehead all the way down.

"I'm the future Queen of Hell."

* * *

Mora woke up with a killer headache and groaned, "Shit." She muttered.

"Yeah, you can say that again."

She turned her head to the voice that spoke and instantly regretted it when she started seeing double. "Harv, that you?"

He laughed lightly, "Yeah it's me."

"And are you alive or dead? Or am I dead? Is it possible to feel like crap when you're dead?" She asked sitting up slowly, massaging her head.

He laughed again and shook his head. Only she would start making such remarks after being passed out for two and a half hours.

"Here, take these."

She grabbed Tylenol and glass of water her offered her without hesitation. As she took the meds the boy spoke, "Well I won't ask how you're doing since I can already tell. But I'm glad your okay-okay. You had me worried back there."

"What happened, though? I remember us barricading the door and then... nothing?"

He hesitated, "I don't know. You got up and then started reciting a spell out of nowhere. And you had this dazed look in your eyes." He paused, "For a second I thought I caught blue flames in your eyes."

Mora was listening intently, not recalling any of it.

"After it was over, you fainted. Nick helped me settled you in your room, then when he was sure it was safe he left."

Mora didn't know how to respond to that. "Well, I think that's enough spell casting for the night." She joked.

"Mora."

"I'm fine now, Harvey. Really." She looked straight into his eyes to make sure he knew she was.

He sighed, "Alright If you say so." He looked tired.

"Are you okay?" He didn't answer right away, "I will be." She nodded.

"Now go get some rest, you look beat." She motioned for him to out of her room.

"Okay." And before he exited, he said, "Oh and by the way, you might wanna look in the mirror." And just left it at that.

 _What was he on about?_ She thought. She stood up steadily and went to the large mirror in her room.

"What the hell?" she furiously parted her hair and pulled on the strand of white hair that had mysteriously appeared. She groaned. Her dad was gonna kill her.

"I think it suits you rather well."

She twisted her body around so fast when she heard a familiar voice speak out of nowhere.

"I'm not exactly at the stage of reinventing myself. I'm sure gonna have an interesting talk with my dad, though." She replied.

After the two just looked at each other in silence, Mora had enough, "So you're a witch, huh?"

"Yes, I am," She announced proudly.

Mora nodded, starting to come to terms with this new dynamic, "And you sent someone over to protect me? Aw, were you worried about me, Prudence?"

"Oh, of course not. I wanted to have the honour of killing you myself. Couldn't have someone already dead steal my glory."

 _The arrogant prick,_ Mora thought unpleasantly.

"And here I thought we were getting along swimmingly."

"Think again."

"Are we friends or more like acquaintances?"

Prudence only had a smirk on her face, "We'll see." Then she vanished.

Mora was alone in silence before she said aloud, "Can't lie, I wanna learn how to do that."


	11. Chapter ELEVEN

_The most wonderful time of the year._

Truer words could not have been spoken.

People seem to come into an ebullient state of mind during Christmas. The festivities and spirit created by the brilliance of the holiday season can lift anyone's mood, delighting with sights and sounds that are both merry and bright.

Folks swarmed in and out of the bustling coffee shops and bakeries and stores wanting to get the best for their family members.

In turn, the elegantly decorated, wooden stalls slowly revealed their hidden wonders attracting long queues of bustling customers. The festively designed stalls, illuminated with blinking Christmas lights, vibrant ornaments and brightly coloured signs, were lined up along either side of the streets.

Mora was usually one of the people taking part in the celebrations, despite her introverted demeanour, but too much had happened this end of the year. With truths finally coming to light and tragedies that have occurred, she just couldn't get herself into that Christmas mood, though she did try her best. The fact that she still had to attend school for the next few days before break didn't help either.

"Mora!" Sabrina's voice called out from behind her before she felt a hand gently grab her shoulder. "Hey, I wanted to talk to you," Sabrina said, now standing in front. She made sure they were in a secluded corner of the hallway, away from prying ears, before she began.

"I just noticed you were quiet in there. You didn't really give me an answer. I get it might be early but I figured, on the plus side, it could be good practice. Get you into the feel of how our witchcraft works?" She said nervously.

Sabrina had asked her, Susie and Roz to meet up in the library. Once gathered, she told them that she was planning on contacting her mother from the purgatory and tentatively asked if they wanted to participate.

It wasn't hard to sense the awkwardness moment when her friends expressed that it was a weird invite. They told her it was too soon to be considering that sort of thing since it wasn't long ago that they found out the existence of witches and that not one but two of their friends were them. 

They wanted to go slow with the new state of affairs. They needed a bit more time.

But Mora had been silent the entire conversation, not fully certain of how she felt about the situation. When Sabrina got distracted by seeing Harvey, who she learnt was now her ex-boyfriend, Mora was thankful as it was the perfect opportunity to escape.

And she thought she had been successful, until now.

"Look," she sighed, "I'm not so sure that's a good idea. Aside from the possibility that I might mess something up, I'm don't think I'm ready for that yet, mentally."

"What? Of course, you won't mess it up, you'll be great. Nick told me what you did that night, said you were a natural."

"That was different, Brina. We were literally in a life or death situation." She ran a hand through her hair, "This is... I don't—"

A familiar female voice cut Mora off, "Hello, girls. What are you two chattering about?"

The teens spun their heads to the lady they immediately recognized. Mora cleared her throat and gave a small smile, "Ms Wardwell, hi." Lilith only smiled at her vessel's name. "I was just asking whether Mora wanted to be a part of the séance or not."

"Sabrina!" The brunette's eyes widened so much she thought they might pop out of its sockets.

The girl in question looked at her in confusion before she realizing, "Oh, no, it's all right. Ms Wardwell already knows... because... well, she's a witch, too." She revealed sheepishly.

"Oh? Ms. Kinkle, I had no idea you were a part of the Church of Night," Wardwell said lowly.

"She's not. She recently found out some things about her family and discovered that she's a witch. She hasn't joined our coven as of yet." Mora wanted to tell her friend that she never would but held her tongue.

Instead, she faced her teacher, "Great. Yet another person who's kept a secret from me." She scoffed and rolled her eyes, feeling betrayal all over again though she tried to conceal it. But Lilith saw it.

"Mora, as a witch, let alone an excommunicate from my former coven, it's frowned upon to share such information with a mortal. Had I known—" She tried to amend.

"It's fine. Just— you don't have to explain anything," Mora said looking around not wanting to meet her gaze nor Sabrina's guilty one.

"Let's speak in my office. Hmm?" She asked.

*

"I imagine it must have been a huge shock to you. Uncovering a new part of who you are, yet again?"

She answered without thinking, "It does seem to be a recurring theme in my life these days, but it's fine I've grown used to it."

"Ms Kinkle," she stopped, not knowing how to respond. "Perhaps, I could help you. Seeing as you're entering this new world with fresh eyes, it's only normal for you to need some guidance."

"No, I'm not really looking for a tutor in witchcraft at the moment."

"I was thinking more along the lines of a mentor if you would like," she suggested. "Do you have an idea of what our beliefs consist of?"

"Sort of." She faltered, "No."

Lilith hummed, trying to think of where to begin, "Well, the first order of business, is having your Dark Baptism," she clasped her hands.

"I'm sorry, my what?"

Lilith started to slowly walk around her office as she began to explain to the young girl the witch rite, "When a young witch finally comes of age, he or she, must go through their Dark Baptism. It is a highly unholy sacrament that is important to us and consolidates our devotion to the Dark lord. Now, on their 16th birthday, the individual is to undergo a ceremony where a High Priest will officially initiate them into the coven. That person will then sign their name in the _Book of the Beast_ as a sort of... let's say, pledge to abide by His commandments."

"What exactly am I signing over?"

The older woman shifted, "Essentially, your soul."

Mora snorts, "Well, I can tell you right now that's not gonna happen."

Lilith closed her eyes for a second. She certainly did not have the energy to go through this whole ordeal over again.

"The Baptism is not that entirely different from Christian or Catholic baptism. The upside to ours is that in exchange, our Dark Lord bestows us with extraordinary gifts. This is how we have our magic."

"So, what if someone doesn't go through with it? What, their powers just disappear?"

"Yes, it slowly begins to wane and then after a dozen days have passed, that feeling of power that once filled you, once warmed your core will have gone." The teenager was quiet, so Mary took the opportunity to continue. "But I implore you, go through with it. You'll come to love that feeling if you haven't already." She gave her a knowing look.

That was what she was afraid of. She didn't remember much of what happened the night Greendale was in danger, but she remembered feeling fulfilled with a rush while using magic. And if she's learnt anything from any fantasy story, magic always came with a price. And right now, that price was her soul. Or maybe she would come to hurt someone she cared about in the future.

Her brows furrowed when a thought came to mind, "But my birthday has long since past, how is it possible that my magic is still present?"

"What do you mean?"

She wondered if she could trust her teacher again, but she needed answers anyway so she might as well, "Well, you already know that I'm adopted, which means I'm not Harvey's twin, which means we have different birthday's."

Lilith had feigned surprise when Mora told her what she'd discovered that night and the doe-eyed girl bought the act.

"My _actual_ birthday was two months ago." Now that really was a surprise. "How is this happening?"

Lilith was also trying to find a reason why this could be. No one is able to keep their powers should they decide to not write their name in His book. So, how was this young woman able to retain hers after so long?

And how was she able to summon the Hellfire the night the Thirteen came? That night when she and Sabrina whereby the Hanging Tree, Lilith remembered doubting that Sabrina would not be strong enough to for the spell. She felt it too but said nothing in fear that He would sense her uncertainty in His plan. Until suddenly the energy surrounding them had amplified. Thick and enriching, she could almost taste it.

It hadn't come from Sabrina that much she could tell. For a moment he suspected it to be the Dark Lord. But no, it was the girl sitting in front of her. She was sure of it when she saw her new look and felt the magic emanating from her. She had been right, she was indeed strong.

"I'm not sure," she answered honestly, "but we should not take it lightly. My advice is that we have your baptism as soon as possible before your magic does leave you forever."

"I-," the Kinkle girl shook her head slowly, "I'm not sure I'm ready for that yet."

Lilith sighed. "Very well. I can't force you. Just think about it." All she did was nod.

Lilith didn't know why she wasn't pushing it as much as she had with Sabrina. A tiny part of her was relieved that she didn't want to sign her name. She wanted to keep her out of His radar for as long as she could. She knew she would feel his wrath once he found out. But for the reasons, she couldn't explain she wanted to protect her.

There was a knock at the door before the assistant principal revealed herself, "Oh, my apologies. I didn't think anyone was with you. I just wanted to remind you of the meeting, Mary."

With a tight smile she replied, "Of course, dear, I'll be right there." Smiling, Ms Glover exited the room.

"That's my cue, I guess."

"How about after school tomorrow you come over and I show you some basic spells? So, I can teach you something before you go on school break?"

"Yeah... sure," she stood up from her seat.

"Mora, I am sorry for all the deception. It was never my intention to hurt you. You have to understand, it wasn't something I could simply tell you. I hope you could find it in you to forgive me."

"If I'm being honest, it's tiring holding a grudge," the side of her mouth lifted, showing that she was forgiven.

The older witch wanted to say more but decide against it. She only gave her a slight nod in gratitude.

* * *

Mora was eating grapes out of a bowl finally relaxed when her Dad entered her room after he'd knocked.

"Hey, grab a sweater. We're going out for a bit," was all he gave before he left the room just as quick.

Confused, Mora got off her bed, hesitantly putting on her brown cardigan. Following the path he just took, she asked him where they were going when she caught up to him in the garage.

"You'll see."

After a twenty or so minute drive, they finally arrived at the only storage unit in Greendale.

"What are we doing here?" She asked as she closed the car door. She was only met with silence, as her father just trudged into the white beige and blue building. Sighing, she followed once again.

The walk didn't take much time before they reached a large aluminium door. He used the keys that were jingling in his hands to unlock the padlock.

A stale scent wafted over them when he lifted the door up. Nothing too bad, but she could tell no-one had been here in some time.

The place was organized but still had too many things. The main things she noticed were some chairs, tools, a pingpong table held up against the wall at the back. A small metal shelf on the right wall holding various things. A worn-out couch on the far left and leaning on it. She could make out the shape a motorcycle that was covered by a white sheet.

She watched her dad walk up to two trunk cases. The smallest was sitting upon a larger one. He stopped his back towards her.

"Okay, seriously I give up. Why am I here? I think Harvey would've been a better choice if you need things moved. I lose my breath going up the stairs."

She expected a huffed, a roll of his eyes or something but nothing came. She furrowed his brow as she stepped forward to look at his face. He looked like he wanted to say something but just when he would his mouth closed. This happened a few more times before he dropped his gaze to the cases by his feet, resting his hands on it.

"Dad?"

"These are your parents'." He finally said. Mora stood up straighter, stunned. He cleared his throat, "About two weeks before they died, they started to act strange. At first, it was barely noticeable, but eventually, I did notice. Eric hadn't been seen in days, Natasha wouldn't let you out of her arms. We chalked it up to struggles of having a newborn, but—" he paused, remembering the exhausted appearances, huge bags under their bloodshot eyes, dishevelled hair.

"When I finally went to confront them, they went on and on about how it was too dangerous to be outside. That people, no, actually 'celestial beings' were coming after them, after you." He scoffs, "I just thought they were going crazy, I told them they needed to get help."

"Then two nights later, I got a call from the police station, they said that—that there... had been a fire. And, uh—" he tried swallowing the thick lump. He couldn't bring himself to say the words.

Clearing his throat, Matt continued, "By the time the firefighters managed to put the fire out, it was already too late. The house was entirely ruined, their bodies were burned to the point where they were unrecognizable. One of the men heard a baby's wails when he was looking for survivors and came across your nursery. He said when he got the door opened, he found you in your cot screaming your little lungs out. He was in too much of a hurry to get you out of there that he only realized later when they were doing an inspection on the house, that... by some miracle... your nursery was left untouched by the flames. No one understood it. But, it didn't matter. We were just all relieved that you were okay."

He smiled wistfully, as if stuck in a memory, "That was all that mattered when Sophie had held you in her arms. There wasn't even a question on what we had to do next."

He took another breathe, "You know, the last thing he had asked me was to take care of his family. And I am so sorry that I haven't been able to fulfil that to the best of my ability."

The room was quiet. It gave them both time to adjust to the situation. The shock of him willingly opening up about this with her had worn out slightly. Finally knowing what happened to her birthparents relieved her a bit but also brought things to her attention. Who had they been so afraid of? How had she managed to live? Was it... magic or was there an explanation for it? Had her mother known of its existence? Of who they were?

Having given her a good amount of time and deciding she could be able to handle more, he spoke again, "The police tried to salvage as much as they could. It isn't much but I thought it'd be able to give you a sense of who they were, ya know. Merry early Christmas," He shrugged sheepishly and patted top trunk lightly.

He pointed to the other one under, "This one already belonged to your mother, they couldn't get it opened and neither could I. If you manage to that's great, or we'll go see Toby, maybe he's got some tools from his carpenter store that could help."

"I'm gonna try to get the truck closer to the entrance." She nodded slowly.

Before he could exit she finally spoke, "You weren't all that bad." She turned to face him. "I mean I wasn't the most level headed either. You did alright."

*

Mora was once again in her room, but this time she sat on the floor legs crossed. Her eyes transfixed on the two trunks she hadn't touched yet since she placed them in front of her door.

That was thirty minutes ago.

She was staring at them as if they were Pandora's friggin' box. Like some monster would come out and eat her.

Forcing herself to end the mental debate she was having, she took a breath, reached for the first black matted box on her right and tugged it forward. She flipped the golden clasps up and then pushed it open. Due to its size, she didn't think there would be much inside, and she was right for the most part.

Her hand reached inside and gently ran her fingers over a white baby blanket that was neatly folded. It had a soft pink coloured ribbon that seemed wrap itself around fleecy material and tied into a nice bow in front, but Mora was interested in her name that was sown in the same pale colour.

Her eyes then moved to the other items inside. A small baby giraffe toy, a few pieces of jewellery, a blueish brown plaid blazer, a book she gathered had belonged to her father filled with equations and notes and doodles different things, and a couple of other things. She grabbed photographs that were tied by a string around them. Some were of her alone, or with one of her parents. The two of them on their wedding day, the groom lifted the bride one arm under her knees and the other behind her back. The woman's head was thrown back in laughter and the man's eyes were focused on the camera but his joy could not be ignored.

Another was taken at a hospital if she had to guess. The couple wasn't paying attention to the camera. Their eyes were set on the little bundle in the woman's arms. She was sat on a hospital bed, her face sweaty and she looked like about ready to pass out but she kept her tired eyes open. The man beside her didn't look any better, his hair was messed up and he looked like he could use some sleep too.

But he held the brunette tightly and looked tearfully at the newborn wrapped in a warm pink blanket.

She could practically feel the love coming off of them through the picture. It brought tears to her eyes. She would have loved to meet them, just once.

Sighing, she put the photographs back inside then slowly closed the trunk. Pushing it to the side, she then brought her attention to the second one.

This one was much larger, maybe a meter in length and it reached just above her chest, as she was sat on the floor.

It was made out of a mahogany colour and had black metal handles on the sides. The vintage metal latch in the front was made of the same colour and was rather large.

She tried to push the clasps like the last case but it wouldn't budge. She tried to push it open again using all her strength but obviously, nothing happened.

Giving up she huffed in defeat. Maybe if she got a crowbar or something of that sort to pry it open. She could ask Elijah for his help.

Before she could stand to grab her phone she caught something on the front of the crate. She almost missed it but it was there. Black dusty particles were suddenly appearing on the wooden trunk, which was strange since it was surprisingly clean when she inspected it, considering it was in a storage room for God knows how long.

She furrowed her brows as she used her fingers to brush off the dirt but it didn't do anything, in fact, it seemed to stir up the particles even more.

When the dust settled, words seemed to take shape. Mora leaned forward and tried analyzing them. They were in a different language, Latin was her best guess. She never took Latin so she couldn't understand a word that was written but they seemed to call out to her.

Tracing her fingers through the intricate calligraphy, she whispered the words out loud, " _Qui habet... potestatem in altum, pro me... ut ubi inde nunc a modo... Nobis sunt clavem... Mihi apertum_."

Click.

Mora retracted her hand and jumped back a bit in surprise. _She knew_ she thought, _right?_

Deciding to put that thought at the back of her mind, for now, Mora opened the chest and peered inside. Books of different sizes and lengths in various shades of brown and black, plain or detailed patterns were staked nicely. A metal box with herbs neatly packed. A few bottles, some empty and other filled with sands and questionable liquids. She grabbed a scroll and recognized it as a map of the world once she opened it. Though the design was old and the ends of the parchment were tattered, it could still be used.

Rolling it back up, she placed it next to her and took out a random book, taking in its worn-out leather cover and paging through it for a few seconds. She closed it and rubbed its spine gently. ' _Anastasia_ ' appeared engraved, then disappeared after a few seconds, just as the words on the coffer had. She put the book down and grabbed another, ' _Marabelle_ '.

And another ' _Élise_ '.

' _Mélanie_ '.

' _Tillie_ '.

' _Josephine_ '.

' _Freya_ '.

' _Luella_ '.

' _Francisca_ '.

' _Natasha_ '.

She stopped in her tracks for a moment. Mora quickly opened book only to find it empty. She flipped through the entire book and nothing at all, "What the heck?" She huffed and closed the book, racking her brain to think of an explanation to it. But truth be told, she couldn't think of anything, only Natasha could give her the answers she wished for.

* * *

Mora took her lingering gaze off of the enormous Christmas tree adorned with glistening ornaments and glowing fairy lights draped around it when an arm dropped unexpectedly onto her shoulders.

"Dammit, Elijah," she rolled her eyes when he pulled her so the two could start walking alongside the stone-paved streets.

"You're welcome. Come on, I've got one more gift to get."

Unlike Mora, the O'Kelly boy had left his Christmas shopping to be done at the last minute, despite his friends telling him to get it done before. Now, he had to face the consequences of procrastination. And unfortunately, Mora had to face them too after he begged (more like whined) her a million times to come along.

She was promised doughnuts.

Most of the good stuff in the stores were already bought, naturally, but he did manage to get some nice things for his family.

"Why were you looking so glum over there anyway?"

She organized her thoughts first before replying, "I found out how my parents died."

"Woah, dude."

"Yeah. It was a house fire, apparently, I was there too but, obviously, I was the only one who had survived. Dad gave me a bunch of their stuff that he had kept yesterday. He explained some things which was great but, you know, I've got more questions lined up with no one to answer them." She ended and Elijah waited patiently, "I'm thinking she may have been a witch, too. One of the trunks belonged to her and it was locked but then some words started to appear out of nowhere and I swear I was just reading them but then it opened."

"So, it was what, like, a spell?"

"I think so. Which means she knew about the supernatural. Right?" Elijah didn't know what to answer.

"See." She pursed her lips in disappointment.

"I'm sorry."

"No, it's okay. It was inevitable that I'd hit a dead end. Again."

Elijah looked ahead as he thought, "But wait. Wait, wait, wait. We're forgetting something major, here." Mora looked at him quizzically. "You're a witch. You have magic. If you've hit a wall then make it disappear."

"Yeah, sure, great plan."

"No, I'm serious. Roz told me Sabrina asked you guys told be apart of some summoning. Maybe you should do one, too."

"Have a séance, are you insane?"

"Why not? You need to talk to your bio-mom but she's dead. Add magic, a little hocus pocus and voilà, your own customized Oprah Christmas special right in your very living room."

Mora shook her head as she laughed in disbelief.

"Hey, it was just a suggestion."

The girl thought her friend had gone crazy. Well, it was a decent plan that made sense but she couldn't. For one, isn't that like messing up with the natural order or something? E.g Thomas Kinkle, anyone? And secondly, she wouldn't even know how to do the damn spell.

"Slight problem, I don't even know the spell to do it."

"Easy, you could just ask Sabrina for it."

"No," she shook her head, "I already refused to help her with the exact same thing I _might_ be _planning_ on doing."

"O...kay, not Sabrina... Maybe it's in the stuff your dad gave you? She's gotta have, like, a book of spells."

"I don't know..."

"But?" He sang, nudging her.

She groaned, "But, I'll check."

"Yes!"

She pushed him back and rolled her eyes, "Dork."

"Shut up."

Elijah stopped in front of a jewellery stand, looking at bracelets for his mother. And Mora waited on the side patiently. She looked around, amused by the many kids allured by the scent of freshly baked Christmas cakes coming from a neighbouring bakery like bees to honey, amidst the bustling streets and their parents rushing to keep up with them so as to not lose them.

"How are things going at home though? It seems like things are going better with your Dad."

They continued their stroll when he didn't see anything she might like.

"Good, actually. It's getting better. He's eased up on Harvey about his art. And we have somewhat normal conversations."

"That's progress," he pointed out.

"Yes, it is. Come on, I remember seeing a nice overcoat your mom said she liked, in there." She pointed through the window of a clothing store across the street from them. "Oh but it looks like some lady might be taking it."

"What?" And it was the last one. Elijah didn't hesitate in sprinting through the store doors, leaving Mora to follow.

"Yo! When am I getting my doughnuts?"


	12. Chapter TWELVE

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Hey guys! Hope you are enjoying this book as much as I loved writing it (even though it gives major headaches ugh..)  
> Don’t be shy, give me your opinions, or thoughts, or ideas, or anything really, I’d love to hear them!

It was finally December 25th. The stockings were hung, bellies were full, gifts exchanged and no one was storming up to their rooms in anger. Clean and short. Mora considered this year's Christmas a success. Since this was the first time they'd celebrated without Tommy, she expected a screaming match of some kind, but no, she, Harvey and their father had behaved. It wasn't filled with that much joy and it was somewhat tense, but still. It really was a Christmas miracle.

Once the credits of _A Christmas Carol_ had rolled, Matt informed his kids that he was gonna go celebrate with a couple of his friends at the local bar and to not wait up.

His drinking had gotten worse over the past few weeks. He thought he was hiding it well but the two kids weren't stupid. They both noticed. And unfortunately, they didn't know how to help or anyone who could, they decide to let him be for the time being. The man was obviously still grieving and this time of year just seemed to make it worse.

They were praying that it wouldn't get too out of hand and make him physical. They were worried that the alcohol would make him more bitter than he was before, when all of a sudden, he stopped. He proved them, and himself, wrong and cleaned up his act.

"I was honestly waiting for the other shoe to drop the entire time," Harvey commented, handing Mora a dish he had just rinsed.

"Tell me about it. I was half expecting Tommy to slide in the living room in some ridiculous outfit, trying to get us to sing silly songs with him." She dried the plates and packed them where they stayed.

"Uh, no. I could do without that. His singing sounded like he was getting mauled by a bear. And unfortunately for us, it got worst every year, despite what he thought." He joked and Mora chuckled.

"It was amazing how tone-deaf he was," they laughed together. They worked in comfortable silence before Mora asked as she packed the last of the cutlery in the drawer, "You staying in tonight?"

"Nah, Roz and I are gonna go over to Susie's, keep her company. After everything that went down yesterday, being kidnapped by a Christmas demon and all, we thought she might like the company. You?"

"Yeah, I'm just gonna stay and watch something. Eat more pie, then pass out. Pretty mediocre night, really."

Harvey chuckled lightly, "Alright, I'll try not to be too late. See ya, dude."

"See ya," He took his coat and left the house. Mora's smile fell the second the door closed, her mind immediately rushing with thoughts of the séance she would be attempting soon. It was mainly doubts about whether the séance would even work and then occasional worry that what if her mother didn't even want to see her. Her heart ached at the thought, she didn't think she could go through with this.

Not even a minute later, a knock was heard by her front door. She opened the door and standing there, with a backpack slung over his shoulder and a stupid grin on his face was her idiot best friend.

"Let me guess, right about the time Harvey left you were thinking about chickening out, weren't you?" When she said nothing, he hummed.

"I hate you," she grumbled, knowing he wouldn't let her ditch the plan, but he just winked and waltzed through the house totally unbothered.

"Elijah—"

"No, I know you. You need this, you need answers and as much as you say otherwise you wanna see what you can actually do with these powers. But I also know that you need someone to push you, just a bit. That's what I'm here for."

The brunette shook her head for "Fine." Elijah made a fist and mumbled a victorious 'yes'.

"Awesome. Okay, so I got a few candles, matches, white chalk, my Mom's brownies--"

"Why'd you bring brownies?"

"There's usually an offering needed right?" He gave sheepish look at Mora's raised brow, "Its the only thing I could think of in short notice. We might get hungry, too."

The Kinkle girl shook her head in amusement, biting her lip to suppress her smile, "I don't know much about séances but I think you need an object that belonged to the spirit you're summoning. Do you have anything of hers we could use?"

She shrugged, "I think so. We could check in the trunk," She suggested, making her way upstairs and Elijah followed.

In her room, Mora went through her parents' possessions while Elijah took out the candles that were in his bag and placed them randomly around the room.

"I think this could work," the girl said, gently pulling out a silver necklace with a pendant of a rhombus encased in a circle, both of the shapes encrusted with diamonds.

"Yeah, that's good. So, you got a spell? You did look for it, right?"

"Yes, I did. Well, I actually found two," she said as she made her way to her closet. She stood on the left side and pushed it away from the wall. Bending down, she grabbed a medium-sized book that she hid by the corner.

"So, according to this grimoire, they're called manifestation spells. One of them is used to reveal the presence of veiled matter."

"'Veiled matter' what is that?" He put the final candle on the floor, in front of where Mora now sat and lights it.

"Ghosts, basically." He nodded in understanding. "The problem is that _all_ ghosts would appear and I don't wanna make everyone who's lost someone in Greendale think they've gone completely insane."

"Right."

"So, that brings us to spell number two," She opened the book and stopped at a certain page, "It does basically the same thing except only my ancestors can appear. And what's even better, using the necklace will help conjure its owner directly."

"Okay, so spell number two."

Wrapping the chain of the necklace around her palm, the pendant was left to hang. She sighed, looking at it, "I can't believe I'm doing this."

"You gotta admit though, this is exciting," He said grinning, Mora just rolled her eyes. Elijah was more of a _Star Trek_ nerd than a _Lord of the Rings_ geek. But he was putting aside his bias because he was about to witness actual magic.

She was just glad he was here with her. He was right, as usual. She needed the push.

Mora closed her eyes and raised her palms up facing the sky. She tried to relax but frowned when her thoughts seemed to amplify in the silence. Her mind was all over the place, she couldn't concentrate.

Elijah had been patiently sitting on the chair by her desk, but seeing her shoulders tense the entire time, he felt the need to say something to help her out, "Mora, You can do this. Just take a deep breath and... I don't know, let it happen."

" _ **Magic isn't something that needs to be forced out or feared. If you let it flow with you, through you... you will be able to do such**_ _ **remarkable**_ _ **things. It's not something to be afraid of. It is to be embraced."**_

_**Placed on Mary's desk was a short white candle, right in the teenager's line of sight. She** _ _**continued** _ _**, "Now, I bet that you will be able to light this candle as easily as I can write my name."** _

" _ **No, I don't think I can."**_

" _ **And there is that nonsensical doubt. Listen, I understand your anxieties but you don't need to overthink anything. Once you trust it and trust yourself, all worries will wash away. And all that will be left is you and the bliss of power, believe me, I know. All you have to do is want it."**_

" _ **Now, close your eyes,"**_ _ **the apprehensive young girl**_ _ **did as**_ _ **she was**_ _ **instructed. "Take a deep breath. Relax. Clear your mind,"**_ _ **Mary's voice encased her ears almost hypnotically.**_

" _ **In that**_ _ **seemingly endless**_ _ **dark abyss, there is a tiny flicker of light you see in the distance. You feel a slight warmth within you. Focus on it. And little by little, you're going to make that flare grow bigger and brighter. Do you see it,**_ _ **Mora**_ _ **?"**_ _ **She**_ _ **nodded her head, "Good."**_

With new determination, Mora inhaled deep then exhaled. Clearing her mind of all thoughts, just as she was taught. The candle in front of her lit up suddenly, surprising Elijah as he stood up straighter. Like dominoes, the other candles followed suit. Mora didn't need to open her eyes to see, she was too busy in her space. But she felt it, though.

She began to incant, " _La meme dicie, dic kloré. La meme dicie, dic kloré,"_ the candles flickered, growing a few inches before receding back down every so often. " _La meme dicie, dic kloré. La memean kadic ka lore_. _La memean kadic ka lore_."

She gasped when she felt a pair of hands gripping hers tightly.

" _ **Open your eyes."**_

Her eyes opened.

_**The candle had lit.** _

"Holy shit, is that your—?"

"Mom?"

*

She didn't say anything. She couldn't. Her mind was taking its sweet time processing what was actually happening, which was pissing her off. So, as a pair of smooth chocolate brown eyes looked straight at her, she could only look back, gaping like an idiot.

Sat oppose her was a beautifully tanned woman. Dressed in a long-sleeved charcoal maxi dress that fit her body well, decorated with lace crochet details. Wavy brown locks covered her head and fell down her face as her eyes locked onto Mora's. She looked just like she had in the photos, angelic.

"Okay, well, seeing she's a little shocked with the situation, I mean which is understandable, since you kind of materialized out of freaking nowhere, how about she takes a second while I make the introduction. Hm?"

Elijah was just as stunned as Mora. He had all the faith in his friend but still, a realistic part of himself thought there could be a chance where nothing were to happen. Yet, there she was. He didn't wait for the ghost to reply, before continuing, "Well, um, I'm Elijah. I'm a chocoholic and Mora's best friend. Nice to meet you, ma'am."

"I know who you are, Elijah. You're the one Mora has had to keep out of trouble over the years," Elijah blinked a couple of times, thinking he was seeing double when the older woman gave him an amused smirk that looked so similar to the ones Mora gave. It was almost unnerving.

"Oh. Well... I can explain—" He began nervously.

She smiled, "Oh, there's no need. If anything I owe you my thanks. You've been by my daughter's side for a long time and you've made her happy. I'm cutting you some slack."

"Wait, you've been there? Watching me?"

The two turned their heads when the formerly astounded girl finally spoke.

"Yes. Every day, sweetheart," she reached out and cupped the young girl's cheek and she closed her eyes shut, somewhat nervous of the physical touch but when nothing happened she opens them. She was confused to see her palm was placed on her face, but she felt nothing.

"Wh- I can't feel you." There was no warmth or cold fingers.

Natasha smiled sadly, "I know. Ghosts can't make physical contact, I'm sorry." Mora nodded in understanding, surprised when her shoulders sagged in disappointment.

She looked at the woman attentively, "Hi."

"Hi," Natasha replied laughing, eyes filling with tears, rubbing her thumb on her cheek.

"I was expecting your hand to just pass through her, really."

Natasha gently smiled up at the boy and dropped her hand while Mora rolled her eyes once more, "You know, if I may be honest, I used to think you two would end up together."

The teenagers looked at each other awkwardly, staring for a few seconds assessing the other while thinking the woman's words over before firmly concluding, "Ew. No way." "Absolutely not."

A soft, feather-light laughter resonated in the room and the friends sighed contently. Something about her aura was soothing and calming. They felt at ease.

"Now, as much as I would like to catch up and talk, we don't have much time and I know you have questions. Besides the fact that this spell was not made to last long, you're not strong enough yet to hold it. I think we have about eight minutes before the veil goes back up. "

"Right, okay, questions. Uhh.." she tried to rack her mind for even one of the lousy questions that had been festering in her brain. "I don't even know where to begin." She told her honestly.

The older woman nodded reassuringly, "That's okay, I'll start. I know you've been confused by our family history. Let me first start out by telling you that I'm not a witch."

Elijah tilted his head, "Umm... what?"

"In our family, the Tarsa line, only the firstborn females are gifted with magic. My mother had a daughter before me. But she got sick and passed away a little after a year I was born."

"You still grew up knowing about magic?"

"No, actually. I found out when I was pregnant with you. Some strange things had started happening when I was about five months along. The weather seemed to change during the day when I was feeling sad or happy. Whenever I was angry or afraid things around me would start to float or the room would shake. You were feeding off of my emotions, you were a protective little mama's girl." Mora's cheeks flushed a light shade of pink.

"So, my father, he knew too?"

"The first time it happened, he was as scared as I was. But then, the nerd that he was, he wanted answers and so did I. That's when we learnt about my ancestry." She shrugged, "We tried to gather as much information we could so that we would be able to help you as you got older. We never told his family though. We were afraid of what they might think or that they would take you away from us."

Natasha turned her head to look at her daughter's best friend who had gone grown quiet, "Yes, Elijah?" She could tell he had something on his mind.

"Do you know who killed you?" Elijah bluntly asked.

Mora glared at the boy, "Elijah!" 

"I'm sorry! It's been bugging me." He spread his arms out but his face was apologetic.

"It's alright, Morasha," She told the boy to continue.

"It's just— When Mora told me about the fire, I did some research and the official police report said it was an accident. That there was a mishap with one of the kitchen appliances or whatever but there was a witness who said they saw someone, a man, standing near your house just staring as it went in flames and then disappeared not long before the authorities arrived. And I know it's not much to go on but..." He looked at her expectantly.

"It was an angel."

"Come again."

"You're joking, right?"

"I'm afraid not. They were apart of the Order of the Innocents and they _hate_ witches. First they torture and then force their captives into converting, saying it is in the intent to save their soul and then they kill them."

"Is that what happened to you?"

She shook her head somberly. "No," she hesitated, "We were being hunted because they believed I was meant to bring great evil upon the earth and they had to stop me at all cost. They managed to find us despite your father and I's best effort to stay hidden. They came to the house and set it on fire. We couldn't find a way out."

"Dad," she cleared her throat, "Dad said my room was untouched, how was that possible?"

"It was a protection spell surrounding you."

"Who put it? I mean, you just said you don't have powers, you're not a witch," she questioned.

"That's because I wasn't the one who did. It was... someone very close to me. Family."

"You're saying I have family out there?"

The spirit nodded, "Yes."

"Well, who are they? Where are they? When can I meet them?"

"They will find you soon enough, don't worry. And when you do finally meet them, know that you can trust them."

Mora sighed, hating that she had to wait for who knows how long for someone she doesn't know, "Fine."

"Four minutes," Elijah informed. He had been keeping an eye on his watch when she warned them of their limited time frame.

"That book, in the case, it had my name on it." It wasn't really a question, but Natasha understood.

"The witches in our family each had a grimoire, or grimoires depending on how advanced they were. Grimoires are–"

"—spell books, basically."

Natasha smiled, "Yes. Witches have them to write down the spells they've learned over their existence or spells they've created themselves. Those books," she looked to the trunk that was pushed up against a wall, "belonged to our ancestors passed down. Now they're yours. And eventually, you will fill up your grimoire."

"And how is that gonna happen when I know next to nothing about this stuff."

"As much as I hate to admit it, you need to go to the Academy of Unseen Arts. Your friend, Sabrina Spellman, attends there, too. Only issue is that you need to sign your name in the book, it's indisputable and I don't want that for you."

"The Book of the Beast, yeah, I heard about it."

"The what?"

"I'll explain it to you later." Elijah shrugged. "Look, if it's the only way to—"

"No." she cut her off, "You stay away from that book, you hear me. Nothing good will come from it. Promise me."

"But—"

Natasha grabbed her daughter's hands in her, though she knew nothing would come of it. She had to make her understand the urgency. "Promise me."

"Alright. I promise." Mora didn't want to argue with her mother on their first meeting and this seemed pretty important, going by the look in her eyes.

"I promise, Mom."

Tears filled their eyes when she called her that and Natasha felt she might crumble. But that's who she was, wasn't she? Her mother.

"Thirty seconds," Mora felt her heart clench when she heard those words. She wasn't ready yet, there was so much more that she wanted to know.

"Oh, I love you so much. And I am so sorry for all the things that have happened to you, you didn't deserve it. But you pulled through just as we knew you would because you are a strong, brave young woman. You need to have that strength for what may come in the future." She had this look in her eyes that Mora couldn't quite place and it was gone just as fast but she saw it.

"What do you mean?"

"It's nothing to be concerned about right now. Just be strong and know that I'm always there by your side."

She smoothed her little girl's hair and looked at her fondly. Mora's eyes ran across her face wanting to commit as much as she could to memory. She went to speak but when she blinked, she was gone.

The candle had blown out.

"No."

Elijah gave her a moment, feeling sorrow for her, "Is it stupid missing someone you didn't even know?" She sniffed.

"Of course not. Come here," he murmured sitting down next to her and wrapped his arm around her.

She laid her head on his shoulder when he said to her, "Maybe you'll get a chance to see her again."

* * *

_Faustus Blackwood was alone in the church that night, preparing his sermon. His hand froze on the page he was writing on when he suddenly felt the atmosphere around him shift. It was a familiar feeling that both_ _completed_ _yet_ _frightened_ _him to the core. The Dark Lord._

_The doors to the church swung open and there He stood in all His glory. Faustus immediately stood in front of the podium and bowed._

" _Dark Lord. You honour me by your presence, tonight," he spoke trying to keep his voice steady._

" _Something has been brought to my attention and the matter need_ _s_ _to be attended to. I have chosen you, Faustus, to be the person who will see it through."_

" _Anything you may need, Master."_

" _There is a girl here in Greendale who has recently uncovered her witch powers. She has been groomed in a mortal household all her life so she has no knowledge of our ways. Doting and altruistic Lord that I am, I will not stand by and watch one of_ _m_ _y children live a middling life when they could be so much more._

_You will accept her into the Church of Night. She will have the same privileges as Sabrina Spellman: attending both the mortal school and the Academy."_

" _Certainly, Dark Lord. I shall make immediate arrangements for the girl's baptism."_

_"That will not be necessary," he tried to conceal it but Faustus was_ _friggin'_ _surprised, "I-I don't underst—"_

" _Silence," He bellowed, the warlock dropped his eyes to the ground. "Until I say otherwise she will not sign. She will be treated with the most absolute respect. That is_ _m_ _y decree."_

_The man cleared his throat, "Certainly."_

_Faustus' mind was churning. He was pondering on who could be so important for the Dark Lord to allow them in the coven without pledging their fealty. "F-forgive me, Your Unholiness. If I may be so bold to ask... what is this young girl's name?"_

" _Morasha Davinah Kinkle."_

He woke up with a start. Upon a quick inspection of his bedroom, he noted he was indeed alone. Running a hand through his hair he laid his head back on his pillow, his mind preoccupied with remnants of his dream. No, not dream. A directive given to him by the Dark Lord. Whatever it was that He needed, it shall be done because Faustus had no plans in disobeying Him.

So, he hadn't wasted a moment. Monday afternoon he knocked on the Kinkle household door and waited for someone to answer.

"Can I help you?"

Mora was walking back from the shed to the house, logs of wood in her arms for the fireplace since they ran out and it got cold during the night.

She had watched him walk up to the front door and stand there patiently. She stood behind him silently, trying to think if she or her father knew him. He didn't look like a lawyer or anything like that so she wondered what his business was.

When he turned around she got a better look at him. The white male had a rather tall stature. The long coat that reached to his knees was black, matching everything else on his person except the white shirt she saw peaking from out his vest collar.

His hair was combed back elegantly and held together. His long shaped face regarded her almost condescendingly, with one of his eyebrows raised. With the way he stood straight, shoulders perfectly levelled, she felt the narcissism from where she was. She dragged her eyes along his person and saw the black cane gripped in his left hand.

"I suppose. I am looking for someone that resides here."

"Obviously," she sassed and saw his jaw twitch.

"I'm looking for Miss Morasha Kinkle."

"Why?"

"I have business to attend to with her."

"Weird, I don't recall ever having met you before. So, I'm gonna have to ask who the hell are you?"

He was just about to scold the young girl on her impertinence when it clicked, "You must be her?" She only hummed.

Clearing his throat he tried again, "Forgive me. I am Father Faustus Blackwood and there is an urgent matter that needs to be discussed. If it alright with you, may we speak more privately inside."

Mora frowned at his sudden change in demeanour before shrugging. Walking up to the door she spoke, "Don't do anything stupid. I've got a panic button and metal bat," Her hand was on the doorknob when she paused and turned to look into the man's eyes, "So, try me. You'll regret it."

Opening the door she walked in, leaving Faustus momentarily stunned before following suit.

She made her way to the living room, placing the wood near the fireplace then turned to the stranger she had just let into her home.

"You can take a seat. I would offer you something to drink but I don't feel like extending this any longer."

Faustus gave her a tight smile, "There won't be a need. This will be brief."

She nodded slowly and took a seat too, "Alright, so what's this about?"

"This is about you, Ms Kinkle. You may not know this but I am the High Priest a coven called the Church of Night and Director of the Academy of Unseen Arts based here in Greendale. Now that you have come of age, it is only appropriate that you attend our school. A place where you will be able to interact with those who are like you." He reached into his coat and pulled out an envelope which had a black wax seal keeping it closed. "I wanted to personally hand over your acceptance letter."

Mora hadn't moved an inch to grab the envelope, "How do you know about me?" She was wary of the situation, but it's also piqued her interest.

He gave her a kind smile, but his eyes seemed to hide something, "We, at the Church of Night, keep an eye out on our own. We've only been waiting for the right time for you to be ready. I believe that time is now. You have been deprived of true erudition and your true potential. At the Academy, we can help you with that and so much more."

"What's the catch?"

"Normally students would have to stay at the Academy and return to their homes during the holidays. Now, I understand that you've grown in a mortal household and you may hold an... attachment to your friends and family, so I am willing to make an exception.

The best scenario I can allow is for you to attend for two weeks every fortnight. Once the day ends you may return here to your home. But, for your first week, I'm afraid you will need to remain, just so you may acquaint yourself with the establishment. Your own private accommodation will be provided and you would only need ask for anything to make your stay more pleasurable."

Okay, now Mora was extremely wary. She looked at him sceptically, "That's it? Nothing that needs to be signed?" She tried and honestly failed, to subtly ask. But either Faustus was oblivious or chose to ignore it.

"Nothing at all."

"I'll... have to think about it." Faustus was surprised yet again and became nervous at that reply but hid it and kept his smile plastered.

"Of course, I understand. It is a big decision to make," He tried again to give her the envelope, "Take it. Should your response be favourable, that letter has all details you will need. The semester starts on January fifth. Hopefully, I will be seeing you there, Morasha."

Fiddling with the letter she had hesitantly taken from him. She corrected him, "Mora. I go by Mora."

"Apologies... Mora."

The teen then showed Father Blackwood out the door. She was serious when she said she'd think about it.

Her mother had admitted she needed to go to this Academy in order to learn more about being a witch but she also said it would come with a price, so she promised not to sign that stupid book. But that was just it. Father Creep had basically welcomed her into Hogwarts and told her there weren't any other requirements needed, no strings attached. And yeah, she wasn't that naïve. She knew people lied. So, she knew she had to be vigilant. The second something suspicious happened she would be out of there before it got ugly.

Yeah, that plan seemed fine with her. 


	13. Chapter THIRTEEN

"So, what, you got accepted to witch Ivy League?"

"Seems like it."

It was Saturday afternoon and Mora was on the phone with Elijah discussing Father Blackwood's impromptu visit four days ago and his even more unexpected invitation.

She was sat by her desk fixing a laptop one of her classmates gave her. The guy had explained to her that 'the keyboard just, like, totally stopped working. The screen went, like, crazy and started doing this glitchy thing. I dunno, man.' Though his description wasn't the most helpful, she was able to figure it out anyway and had started the repairs.

From time to time, people would ask her to fix random things but her speciality was tech. And in exchange, they paid her. Sometimes she'd even tutor, only if she felt she had enough tolerance in her that day.

Her little side business paid good money. I mean she had to find some way to fund her boots obsession.

She was placing a few things back into its compartments when she spoke, "Look, obviously, he could be hiding something and I'll watch my back but other than that I don't see why I shouldn't go. I'll maybe stay a week then if I find it doesn't interest me, I'm gone before anything bad happens. Simple."

Elijah made a sound of disagreement, "It was you who told me to push my limits and uncover my potential. This could help."

Elijah rolled his eyes on the other end. _I did say that_ , he thought begrudgingly, "How did Harvey take it?" It went so silent he thought the call had been dropped.

"Mora, you did tell him, right?" She sighed.

"Dude," he reprimanded.

"I know, I know. I just didn't know how to tell him."

"Uh, the same way you just told me."

She started screwing in another piece into place, "Look, I tried okay but it's complicated, 'Lijah."

He ignored her excuse and wondered, "You still haven't told Harvey about contacting your mother, have you?"

She scoffed, "You kidding? You've seen the way he's been acting around Sabrina. It's constant awkwardness between the two, even when they're not in the same room. He told me that he went to see her on Christmas Eve and told her he didn't want magic anywhere near him after she helped out with Dad's drinking. Said he doesn't trust it."

She switched the cellphone position and tucked it between her right ear and shoulder to get a better reach of her tools, "If I tell him I've been practising from just across his room—" she sighed, "I kinda see why Sabrina kept this part of her a secret for so long. Kinda screws everything up. It's honestly giving me a headache."

"I fully disagree. Magic is the answer to everything."

Mora spun her head, startled by the voice that spoke behind her. The one and only Prudence Blackwood sat on the edge of her bed, her leg crossed over the other and looking at her nails without a care in the world.

As she finally got her heart rate to steady, Mora rolled her eyes, "Elijah, I gotta go. I'll talk to you later."

"You need to tell him soon," he told her quickly. He hadn't heard her visitor's comment and thought she just wanted to avoid the conversation.

"Yeah, I hear you. Bye."

"Bye," He said then hung up.

"You really need to stop sneaking up on me like that," the blonde simply shrugged unbothered, "What do you want, Prudence?"

"Nothing, I just wanted to see how the half-breed I dislike the least was doing."

" 'Half-breed', ouch. That almost hurt my feelings."

The side of Prudence's lip lifted, "What secrets are you keeping from your witch hunter brother?"

"Eavesdropping is considered rude, FYI," she turned back to what she was doing on the desk, "and he has a name: Harvey."

"Stop dodging and spill the beans, Kinkle."

"You know, they're called secrets for a reason."

"I won't tell. Oh, did you want me to pinky swear?" She mocked. Mora rolled her eyes, yet again, but she gave in. She wouldn't stop otherwise. "Short version: I contacted my mother."

"I fail to see the problem." Prudence said, "Wouldn't he want to be part of that? To meet the woman who birthed to him?"

"My dead biological mother."

"Ah," she hummed, now understanding.

"Using magic that he isn't quite comfortable to be around," she continued.

"Oh."

"I had some questions, she answered what she could and now she's gone again."

"Well, I'm sure he'll get over it. That is unless he wishes to cut off ties with both his lover and his only sibling." Mora chewed on her lip nervously because that was exactly what she feared would happen.

"But on the bright side," she leaned her body forward, elbow placed on her leg and chin resting on her fist, "look whose decided to embrace their other half."

Prudence appreciated the irony. A girl from a family of witch hunters actually engaging in the dark art. There was a joke in there somewhere. "Though with what Nicholas had told me, you just might be cut out for it. You made quite the impression."

With the lack of response from the brunette, Prudence sighed, "In my opinion, there is nothing for you to feel guilty about. You're a witch. Plain and simple and he can't change that. I'm guessing you want to find out what that truly means and you don't need his permission to do so. Nor do you need to hold his hand for everything, Morasha. Besides, one thing I'm sure of is that no matter the quarrel, family always sticks together."

Mora turned her head to look at Prudence over her shoulder. "Eventually he'll come around. So, you don't need to worry." She finished, somewhat genuine.

She wouldn't admit but Mora agreed with some of the things she was saying. A tiny-tiny part of her resented Harvey for making her feel uncomfortable with who she now was. But a bigger part of her understood him. Magic had messed her family up bad at a certain point. So, for his sake, she let his attitude pass and used that reasoning to wane her anger. **  
**

"Now that you're here, I was curious. Where do you go to school?" Prudence rolled her eyes at the change in subject, "You don't look like you're from Riverdale. You give more of a 'mean girl from a posh boarding school' vibe."

"You wouldn't know it. It's a school here in Greendale for people like us, but it's hidden away from mortals."

"Let me guess, your headmaster's some guy called Faustus."  
  
"How do you know Father Blackwood?"  
  
"He came by the other day, said I'd been accepted to attend there if I wanted."  
  
" ' _If_ you want' ?" She was surprised. There usually wasn't much of choice when it came to going to the Academy and this is the second person to whom Father Blackwood was willing to make a compromise. "Well, do you?"  
 **  
**She gave a half shrug, "Now that I know you're there how could I possibly miss the chance at pissing you off daily?" Mora smiled at the girl's annoyed expression, "But it'll have to wait cause I need to be somewhere right now."  
 **  
**Prudence watched as she packed the device she had been working on and stood up to grab her coat.  
  
"Where are we going?"  
  
" _I_ am leaving cause I've got some business to tend to. And _you_ are going back to wherever you came from. I would hate to keep you from the busy day I'm sure you've got planned, " she said sarcastically.  
  
"Oh, well lucky for you my schedule just cleared up. So, let's go."  
  
"Fantastic, " she sighed.

*****

  
  
The two had been walking silently for about thirty minutes and it was beginning to feel awkward, for Mora at least. But she didn't know exactly what to say to break the tension, so she ends up staying quiet.

She was relieved when the familiar tone of her phone sounded and answered the incoming call. Her relief soon deflated as the person she was supposed to be meeting told her they were running late and wanted to change the rendezvous location. Sighing, Mora simply told him she wouldn't mind waiting and agreed on a new time before hanging up. Which explained why she and Prudence were seated across from each other at a small coffee shop just a block away.

It was relatively empty, Mora noticed, as she counted only six people present, including them. The barista was leaned on the counter next to the cash register, his full attention on his cellphone; an elderly sat a booth scribbling notes in her diary, papers scattered on the table and a cup of coffee that she would occasionally take sips out of; a man was amused at how his child was devouring the waffles that he got her and wiped the whip-cream that covered half her little face.

They managed to get the barista's attention long enough for them to order drinks and went to sit by one of the empty tables to wait.

And again, silence.

The situation was felt ridiculous to Mora, so she blurted randomly, "Have you always lived here? You got any other family?"  
  
Prudence turned to the girl who had addressed her for the first time since they left her house.  
  
"I mean, besides Sabrina," Mora elaborated, seeing her confusion.  
  
Prudence snorted, "I'm not actually her cousin, you know," she said, thinking back to their first introduction.  
  
"Ah," _Another lie_. "Right, I assumed Ambrose would have been your brother or something."  
  
"I can assure you he most definitely is not," She shuddered. After what they had been through a few weeks ago, the assumption made her a little nauseous. **  
**  
Mora simply nodded and looked at her fingers, thinking the sad excuse of an icebreaker had failed.

"But, yes, I do have a family. My sisters and I were born here. The three of us grew up in the same orphanage since we were in diapers," she revealed. "We knew of each other but we never interacted. I used to think they were such brats when we were kids, and to be honest, I still do," she shrugged nonchalantly, amusing Mora.

Prudence slowly continued, "One day, somehow, we got stuck in an attic. The caretaker and the other children were out, so no one could come to our aid. The first hour was torturous. We wouldn't stop arguing." She remembered wistfully.

It was only until Agatha came across a trunk that was practically a Pat Boone shrine, that let their guards down. They laughed and made jokes about it and then it just clicked for them.

Their beverages had finally arrived, and Prudence waited until the waiter had left before resuming in a soft tone, "We talked about everything. What we liked, what we hated. Our families, or rather the lack of. How we felt alone despite being surrounded by a house full of people. That's when I realized, maybe I wasn't so alone.  
  
Anyway, as the years went by and the others found families to go to, we stuck together. We were all we needed."  
  
She cleared her throat when she saw Mora staring at her attentively. She didn't mean to tell her that much but she had. She was both unsettled, at how quick she was to do so and oddly comforted. ****

Mora was a little caught off guard by the honesty too, "Y-yeah, I get it." That was how she felt about her own siblings. Despite one having passed away and the other acting distant, she loved them with all her soul. She was going to take a wild guess and say Prudence doesn't let just anyone linger around her. The girl hadn't openly said it but Mora could tell she loved her siblings, too and would do anything for them. She could feel her protectiveness over them, something she related to.

"Maybe I'll get to meet them."

Prudence tensed, though it went undetected by Mora. As an unwelcome feeling gnawed in her, like a worm at the core of an apple. Prudence knew she could not have them meet. Considering what they've done to Mora's family... It was too soon.

She plastered on a smile as her guilt sat not only on her chest but festered in her mind. _What was done could not un-done._ She could only make amends in subtle ways, but confession was out of the question.

The next hour or so was surprisingly pleasant. And Mora had to admit she enjoyed Prudence's company when there weren't any tears or harsh words exchanged between them. The guy she had to meet with finally came to collect his belonging and then left just as quick.

It was late at night when they finally reached Mora's home. Now, Prudence could have simply suggested she teleport them back but she didn't want to. She wanted to take her time and talk to someone beside her sisters and the other witches. Someone who grew up 'normal'. Someone who she might get to call a friend, eventually.

"You know, this unplanned hang out wasn't so bad," Mora said, as they took their time walking across the front yard to the entrance, "I had an okay time. I guess I was a bit too quick to judge you. You're not exactly what I expected."

"Same here. It might not be all bad if were you to join the Academy."

"Goodnight, Prudence," she called walking up the front porches steps.

"Goodnight."

Mora stopped at the front door and turned around, "I never got around to thank you for that day in the woods. And then again at Tommy's funeral, I was feeling really shitty and you... well, I don't know, you helped," She admits, "So, thank you."

"Just don't go telling anyone," she said almost sheepish, looking at the ground.

"Right, of course. You have to maintain your mean girl image after all."

Prudence's lips lifted as she replied, "Obviously."


End file.
